Bastakia features a number of traditional old wind-tower houses built in the early 1900s, once the homes of wealthy Persian merchants. Barjeel (wind towers) are the Gulf’s unique form of non-mechanical air-conditioning. In Dubai, scores of original wind towers still exist, traditionally rising 5m or 6m above a house. The tower is open on all four sides to catch the breezes, which are channeled down around a central shaft and into the room below. In the process, the air speeds up and is cooled. The cooler air already in the tower shaft pulls in, and subsequently cools, the hotter air outside through simple convection.