For centuries man has adapted his way of life to the harsh conditions of the Iranian Plateau by the use of simple technology. This text studies how devices such as the wind-catcher, the dome, the ice-house and wind and watermills were adapted to make life comfortable under desert conditions. For centuries man has adapted his way of life to the harsh conditions of the Iranian Plateau by the use of simple technology. This text examines this process in detail, studying not the grand religious and military structures, but those of the ordinary people, and how such devices as the