In the hot, dry deserts of Ancient Persia in around 400 B.C.E, long before the invention of electricity, engineers mastered a sustainable technology to store ice throughout the scorching summer.
Yakhchāl were ancient evaporation coolers with a dome shape above ground and subterranean storage space for ice, food, and other perishables. This effective method of storing ice in the middle of the desert may seem complex, but in reality, it was a simple technique that even the poorest could afford.
Exterior and interior (dome) of the yakhchal in Meybod
Exterior and interior (dome) of the yakhchal in Meybod, Iran.
Ice was collected during winters from the nearby mountains and brought to the yakhchāl, and most also had qanats (underground channels) to carry water from nearby sources
The structure often contained a system of windcatchers, which helped in bringing temperatures inside down to frigid levels during the summer.
Yakhchal near Kerman, Iran
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Some of the yakhchāls that were built hundreds of years ago still remain intact. In present-day Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, the term yakhchāl is also used to refer to modern household refrigerators.
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