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Iranian vernacular architecture has developed over millennia in response to the Iranian plateau's arid climate, scarcity of acceptable building stone and wood, and extremes of temperature. The ubiquitous building material is sun-dried brick and rammed earth. Building types include wind towers which exhaust warm air from buildings during the day; cisterns which are egg-shaped in section; ice houses with walls behind which water in shallow channels friezes at night; pigeon houses to collect droppings to fertilise melon crops, etc. This image essay will be accompanied by an explanatory glossary. (Photographs: Christopher Wood)