Badgirs and Malcafs - conditioners of the ancient Persians and Egyptians

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It is difficult to imagine, but such a useful invention of mankind as an air conditioner is already more than 2 thousand years old!

Even the ancient Persians and Egyptians, living in the hottest regions of our planet, were able to provide their homes with a blessed coolness when the temperature outside rose above 50 degrees. Thanks to some specimens that have survived to this day, modern scientists have found the secret of their action, and many who were able to appreciate its coolness claim that badgirs and malcafs are much more effective than the most powerful split systems of our time.

Badgirs and malcafs are the oldest air conditioners that save you from the heat better than the most powerful split systems.

On the eve of a sultry summer, many begin to frantically think how to protect their home from the unbearable heat that will inevitably come in the near future. Naturally, the modern market offers a huge selection of air conditioners, but as it turned out in ancient times, the inhabitants of the desert and arid regions of the Middle East were able to provide their homes with cool air and ice water by constructing special wind collectors. For more than 2 thousand years, these unique systems have aroused the genuine interest of descendants, surprising with the genius of calculations and construction technology.

Unique constructions, which in Persia (Iranian territory) are called badgirs, and in Egypt - malcafs(which in translation means "wind catcher") have already been sufficiently studied and their capabilities are considered by modern engineers to be more effective, one might even say more perfect than the coolest air conditioning systems in the 21st century. And this is not without reason, because in fact it is a perpetual motion machine, which does not need any power sources and will not need to be repaired even after several millennia, if only the structure itself survived.

Novate. Ru specialists tried to understand all the intricacies of such structures and decided to share the information they received with their readers. As it turned out, creating the much-needed cooling system required absolutely precise geometric, mechanical and architectural calculations by the scientists and architects of the time.

Only after that, the builders began to work, who in the center of any room, be it a huge palace or a tiny house, erected high towers, inside which vertical air channels were created strictly according to the calculated parameters. Moreover, such meticulous calculations and planning were carried out for each specific building, because the location and height of the house played a major role, because these tunnels should provide unhindered and correct movement of air flows, causing a "chimney effect".

Only its effect is somewhat different from the smoke extraction. Thanks to the holes located at the very top of the structure, any breath of wind is caught and drawn in due to the pressure difference, pushing out the stale air, making room for fresh and cooler air.

Considering that badgirs or malcafs were huge in size, their action was not limited to the usual functions of the hood, they made it possible to cool not only the air and walls, but also underground water storages with their numerous channels to almost 0 ° C.

In the premises, the temperature dropped by 10-12 degrees compared to the outside, and this is quite a lot in the climatic conditions of the Middle East.

For many centuries these structures have served not only as ventilation shafts with constant air circulation, but are also a real architectural heritage of this territory. Moreover, the shape, height and their unusualness have become a kind of visiting card of the whole country, because each "air catcher" has its own unique outlines and that the most interesting thing is not for the sake of beauty - there were good reasons for this.

Typically, badgirs are one-sided, four-sided, or eight-sided. If, for example, in Yazd, located between two mountain ranges, desert winds disturb less than in other other areas, architects could design tall four-sided or eight-sided structures without any problems.

If this is a desert area, such as in the city of Meybad, then badgirs were erected low and one-sided, oriented to the side, from where cool and more pleasant air masses with the least amount of hot sand could come.

The most interesting thing is that this kind of structure, whatever its shape, has its original outlines and it is almost impossible to find the same ones. Not only were they designed by different architects, and each had its own particular style, which is its hallmark, but the location of the house dictated certain conditions.

For example, the lower the house is in a densely populated area, the higher the tower had to be raised in order to ensure the flow of air, and the north side, directed towards the Isfahan wind, must necessarily be 40 cm higher than all the others.

That is why the original towers that have survived to this day are still considered true masterpieces of architecture and a monument to the genius of engineering thought of mankind, for the sake of which tourists from all over the world come to admire and see with their own eyes that such a miracle is possible.