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Explore each city’s unrepeatable delights and mysteries with your own eyes. Learn about the unique history and tales of you preferred city with its landscapes and sites, and much more…

The Dowlatabad Wind Tower (badgir), presumably the world's tallest, is said to be 260 years old and about 33 meters high. It is surrounded by intricately hand-carved wooden lattice panels and stands atop the Dowlatabad Ab-Anbar (cistern).

Water reservoirs, or 'Ab Anbars' as they are nationally known, are traditional water supply systems that make urban settlements possible in the Kavir desert region of Central Iran. Ab-Anbars consist of four elements: underground reservoir, platform, dome, and wind tower.

The Dowlatabad Wind Tower sits atop the Howz Khaneh (pool house) in Dowlatabad Garden and has delicate stained glass decorations. This wind tower created a cool sitting room for the residents of the garden.  

Wind towers are important elements in traditional Iranian architecture, providing natural air-conditioning in hot, dry and humid climates for thousands of years. The function of the cistern found below most wind towers in warm dry regions was to help balance humidity inside the structure.

Wind towers consist of four parts: the body containing shafts, air shelves which catch hot air and prevent it from entering the structure, flaps which redirect wind circulation, and a roof covering.

Wind travels through the shafts on top of the tower to reach the interior of the building. The air flow inside the structure travels in two directions, up and down. The temperature difference between the interior and exterior of a building causes pressure variations which result in the creation of air currents. In cities where the wind only blows from one direction, one shaft operates to receive the breeze and the other three work as air outlet passages.

The Dowlatabad Wind Tower is located within the 72,000 square-kilometer garden of the same name and was originally created by Mohammad Taqi Khan also known as the Great Khan, who governed Yazd in the 18th century and who founded the Khan dynasty in Yazd. The Khan initially had a 65 kilometer deep Qanat (underground water management system resembling a well) dug to transfer water from Mahriz to the city of Yazd in order to create a heavenly garden in the midst of one of the driest cities of Iran and establish his center of rule. 

marjan

You can stand underneath the entrance of the wind tower in the center of the building and actually feel the breeze coming in and there is a small water pool that used to cool the entering wind before guiding it through the structure in air canals. the engineering of these structures still amaze us in the modern era of technology :)

Chris

Beautiful building and have to say magnificent architecture and engineering have been used in building this structure. The wind tower guides the hot air of the desert to the center of the building where cool water of the Qanat (underground water) in the small pool awaits it and cools it before entering the rooms and also building has amazing glass paintings only visible to you from inside :)

مهدی

یزد در دنیا به شهر بادگیرها معروف هست. اما بعضی از بادگیرها در یزد از بقیه معروف تر هستند. این یکی از همون بادگیرهای بزرگ هست. خیلی زیباست.

بابک

یزد شهر بادگیرهاست و این هم یکی از بادگیرهای بزرگ و بی نظیر.

Dowlatabad Wind Tower

  • Address

    Dowlat Abad Garden‌