Natural Turkish Air Conditioning

In the heat of the summer, Turkey can reach unbearable temperatures. And since the scorching weather isn’t anything new, Middle Eastern architects have been using ingenious ways to stay cool for centuries.

From tall walls and small windows to maximize shade, to wind towers that suck hot air out with the desert wind and qanat (underground aqueducts) to cool air from below, I’ve encountered many different approaches to “natural air-con.”

The most ubiquitous though, has to be the use of water in Middle Eastern architecture—just look at the Moorish Alhambra in Granada, Spain for one of the world’s most exquisite examples.

In Turkey, even today the use of running water and fountains is everywhere…and for good reason. A relaxing meal reclining on a cushioned platform over a cool stream and next to a squirting fountain is a welcome respite to Turkey’s baking desert (or mountain, or coastal) heat.

At the moment I seem to have misplaced the details about the fun restaurant pictured below (although the photo is accurately geotagged; if you click on them you’ll see them placed on the PlanetEye map), but there are a few similar places in the vicinity of the Chimaera. Here, not only do you eat on platforms above a wide, rushing stream, you can even fish for your own lunch!