Windmills, Marvel of Persian Engineering, Still Turning

Date: 08 October 2024 - 21:53

News ID: ۱۳۲۲۱۶

NASHTIFAN, Iran (Atlas Obscura/National Geographic) – Located on the arid and  windswept plains of northeastern Iran, 30 miles from the Afghan border, the small village of Nashtifan is keeping ancient traditions alive amid the winds of change. The town is home to some of the earliest windmills in the world, and the structures are still in use today.
Along the southern edge of town, a towering 65-foot-tall earthen wall shelters residents from the abrasive gales. The high wall houses two dozen mostly functional vertical axis windmills that date back to ancient Persian times. It’s estimated the structures, made of clay, straw, and wood, are around 1,000 years old, used for milling grain into flour.
The area is known for its uniquely powerful winds, and in fact the name Nashtifan is derived from words that translate to “storm’s sting.” During turbulent winter months the handcrafted wooden blades whirl with a surprising velocity and power grindstones in a marvel of engineering and passive ventilation. With periodic repairs to turbines, these well-built earthen structures could go on for centuries so long as there are caretakers willing to maintain them.
The tall walls framing the windmills both support the turbines, and funnel the airflow like the elliptical throat in a primitive windtunnel. Unlike European Don Quixote-style windmills, the Persian design is powered by drag as opposed to lift. And since the blades are arrayed on a vertical axis, energy is translated down the mast to the grindstone without the need for any of the intermediary gears found on horizontal axis windmills.
The vertical axis design is probably similar to the windmills that were invented by the Persians around 500 C.E.—a design that slowly spread through the world and which was later adapted by the Dutch and others.
Each of the windmills of Nashtifan is comprised of eight chambers, with each chamber housing six blades. As the area’s strong, steady wind enters the chambers it turns the blades, which then turn grindstones. The structures reach up to about 65 feet in height.
The windy pride of Nashtifan, the structures are doted on by an amiable custodian named Ali Muhammad Etebari, who estimates that parts of the earthen windmills are 1,000 years old. Etebari draws no salary from his unofficial village occupation, but told a film crew with the International Wood Culture Society, with a raspy laugh and finger jab, “If I don’t look after them, the youngsters will come and spoil it and break everything.”
In 2002 the windmills were recognized as a national heritage site by Iran. Yet their future remains uncertain. There are easier ways to mill grain now, and Etebari doesn’t know if anyone will take up the mantle of keeping the windmills turning when he is gone. If that happens, a piece of living history could become lost.