TEHRAN – Iran has put forward its cluster of Asbads - ancient vertical-axis windmills - as a candidate for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) has proposed Asbads for possible inclusion in the prestigious list, CHTN quoted Mohammad-Ali Bozorgmehr, an official with the CHTHO, as saying on Monday.

Dotted in Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi provinces, such windmills are fueled with strong northern winds blow throughout the year in the eastern parts of the country.

“Asbad is a smart technique to grind grains, a technique which goes back to ancient times when the people living in the eastern parts of Iran, in an attempt to adapt themselves with the nature and transform environmental obstacles into opportunities, managed to invent it,” according to UNESCO’s website.

“The earliest-known references to windmills are to a Persian millwright in 644 CE and to windmills in Seistan [Sistan], Iran, in 915 CE,” the Encyclopedia Britannica says.

Currently, avid visitors and researchers can see the subtle yet simple mechanism in person as several windmills have been restored and brought back to life.

PHOTO: Foreign travelers visit well-preserved windmills in Nashtifan, northeastern Iran.

AFM/MQ/MG