Azizan

Windcatcher (badgir) facts for kids, with the Persian words

A windcatcher, in Persian a badgir, is a tall tower that stands up from the roof of an old house in the hot, dry parts of Iran. It catches the breeze high above the rooftops and sends it down into the house, so the rooms below stay cool. It needs no electricity at all. When there is no wind, it works the other way, like a chimney, letting the warm air float up and out. In Persian it is badgir (بادگیر), which means "wind catcher". The city of Yazd is famous for them. Below are the facts in simple words, a small activity to try at home, and the Persian words. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated Persian children's stories page by page. This page is a free guide for parents raising Persian-speaking children abroad, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.

Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.

What is a windcatcher?

Imagine a house in a place where the summer is very hot and it almost never rains. The sun beats down all day, and inside the rooms it is stuffy and warm. Now imagine a tall tower sticking up from the roof of that house, like a chimney, but open at the top. That tower is called a windcatcher. In Persian it is a badgir, which means "wind catcher".

A badgir is a kind of air conditioning, but one that was invented hundreds of years ago, long before anyone had electricity. It uses no power at all. It just uses the wind, the warm air, and clever shapes that someone worked out a very long time ago. You can see badgirs on old houses in the hot, dry parts of Iran, most of all in a city called Yazd.

How a windcatcher catches the wind

Up high, above the rooftops, the air is a little cooler and cleaner than the dusty, hot air down in the street. The badgir is tall so it can reach up to that better air.

At the top, the tower has big openings. When a breeze blows, it goes in through the opening facing the wind, and then it slides all the way down the inside of the tower and into the rooms below. So the people in the house get a soft flow of cooler air coming down from above, without opening a single window to the hot street. Many badgirs in Iran have openings on all four sides, so they can catch the wind no matter which way it is blowing.

What happens when there is no wind

You might wonder: what if the air is still and there is no breeze at all? A badgir has an answer for that too.

Warm air is light, and light air floats upwards, the same way a warm balloon rises. Inside the house, the air warms up during the day. That warm, light air rises up the tower all by itself and escapes out of the top, a bit like smoke leaving a chimney. As the warm air leaves, cooler air is pulled in from the shady side of the house to take its place. So even on a still day, the badgir keeps the air moving and the rooms from getting stuffy.

Cooler still: adding water

A windcatcher can make the air cooler if the air passes over water on its way in. When wet things dry, they take a little heat away, which is why stepping out of a pool can feel chilly even on a warm day. Old houses used this trick.

Sometimes there was a small pool of water at the bottom of the tower, or the air was drawn down past cool underground water before it reached the rooms. That water often came from a qanat, a clever underground channel that carried water across the desert. The badgir and the qanat worked together: the tower moved the air, and the water made it cooler. How much cooler depends on the day and the house, but on a hot afternoon the rooms could feel noticeably cooler, often by a few degrees, than the baking street outside.

Yazd, the city of windcatchers

The city most famous for badgirs is Yazd, in the middle of Iran, surrounded by desert. If you look across the old part of Yazd, you see tower after tower rising above the flat brown rooftops. People there built their whole houses to beat the heat: thick earth walls, shady courtyards, and a badgir on top.

The old city of Yazd is so special that in 2017 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage city, a place the whole world agrees is worth protecting. One of the tallest windcatchers in the world stands in a beautiful old garden in Yazd called Dowlat Abad. Its tower is about 33 metres tall, roughly as tall as a ten-storey building. You can read about the kind of cool, green, watered garden it stands in here: Persian garden facts for kids.

Try it at home: feel how moving air cools

You do not need a tower to feel what a badgir does. Here are two small, safe things to try.

First, make a paper fan. Fold a sheet of paper back and forth, like a concertina, then hold one end and wave it at your face. The air was not really any colder, but moving air carries heat away from your skin, so it feels cooler. That is a little like the moving air a badgir brings down into a room.

Second, with a grown-up, feel how water cools the air. Dip a cloth in water and wring it out so it is damp, not dripping. Hold the damp cloth near your face and fan it, or ask a grown-up to set an ordinary fan blowing across the damp cloth. The air coming off it feels cooler than the air in the rest of the room, because the water is drying and taking a little heat with it. That is the same trick as the water under an old badgir. Keep fingers and the cloth away from the moving blades of any fan, and let the grown-up handle it.

Windcatcher words in Persian

For the underground water channels that often cooled the air below a badgir, see Qanat facts for kids.

For parents: the badgir at home

The badgir is a lovely way to show a child that clever ideas do not always need a screen or a plug: people kept cool for hundreds of years with shape, shade and air. If anyone in the family has been to Yazd, ask them what they remember, the towers above the rooftops, the cool, dim rooms, the still courtyards. Make the paper fan together and say the words as you go: baad, khonak, garm, khaaneh.

A grandparent far away can be part of it too: they can record a story on Azizan, reading it page by page in their own voice, and the child can watch it and then ask them about the tall towers that catch the wind. For the water half of the same old desert system, see Qanat facts for kids.

Related guides

• Qanat facts for kids
• Persian garden facts for kids
• Caspian Sea facts for kids

Questions

What is a windcatcher (badgir)?

A badgir is a tall tower on the roof of an old house in the hot, dry parts of Iran. It catches the breeze high above the rooftops and sends it down into the rooms below, so the house stays cool with no electricity at all.

How does a windcatcher work with no electricity?

When there is a breeze, the tower catches it up high, where the air is cooler, and channels it down into the house. When there is no wind, warm air inside the house floats up the tower and escapes out the top, like smoke in a chimney, and cooler air is pulled in to replace it. It uses only the wind and warm air, no power.

Why is Yazd famous for windcatchers?

Yazd is a city in the middle of Iran, surrounded by desert, and its old houses are covered with windcatchers to beat the heat. The old city of Yazd was named a UNESCO World Heritage city in 2017. One of the tallest windcatchers in the world, about 33 metres tall, stands in the Dowlat Abad garden in Yazd.

Does a windcatcher use water?

Often, yes. If the air passes over a pool of water or cool underground water on its way in, it comes out cooler, because drying water takes a little heat away. That water often came from a qanat, an underground channel. The tower moved the air and the water cooled it.

What is a windcatcher called in Persian?

Badgir (بادگیر), which means wind catcher. Wind is baad (باد), cool is khonak (خنک), warm is garm (گرم), house is khaaneh (خانه) and courtyard is hayaat (حیاط).

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Updated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard

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