By Maryam Rostami

Before refrigerators, Iran had Yakhchals: Where did summer ice come from?

GONABAD – Have you ever paused, while sipping a chilled sharbat or juice with ice cubes floating inside, or enjoying an iced tea or iced coffee, to wonder how people kept their drinks and food cool before modern refrigerators and ice makers existed? Did they have access to cold water during the scorching days of summer? To find the answers, one can look to the heart of Iran’s desert cities—places where architectural ingenuity and human adaptation to nature gave rise to remarkable structures known as yakhchals, or icehouses.

Yakhchal, where ancient Iranians stored ice before freezers, under restoration

TEHRAN—Restoration work has commenced on Yakhchal-e Moayedi, one of the domed mud-brick structures where ancient Iranians stored ice before the age of freezers and refrigerators.