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How did Yakhchāls work?
A yakhchāl takes advantage of the low humidity in desert climates which promotes the evaporation of water (making evaporative cooling more effective) and promotes rapid cooling once the sun sets (water vapor inhibits radiative cooling in less arid climates).
How did they make ice in ancient Persia?
Make ice: To make ice the Persians built plaza-like ponds, shaded by a high wall, where the shallow water froze on winter nights. Collecting the ice before sunrise, they stored it in the ice house (dome in the background).
Can a Yakhchāl make ice?
Yakhchāls were often used to store ice which naturally formed during winter, as well as storing food. However, these structures were also able to freeze water – even in the desert! Once water is stored inside the yakhchāl,it’s able to freeze into ice because of the extremely low temperatures that the structure creates.
How cold does a Yakhchal get?
It shows that in winter the temperature occasionally drops to -5°C and in summer the temperature regularly exceeds 30°C and can reach 40°C.
How did they keep ice before freezers?
The process of ice harvesting looked somewhat similar to crop harvesting, with horses pulling plow-like ice cutters across frozen lakes and ponds. Before ice could be cut, snow had to be cleared from the surface. A large block of ice was stored inside to keep these early refrigerators chilly.
How did they make ice cream before freezers?
Before the development of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury reserved for special occasions. Making it was quite laborious; ice was cut from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in holes in the ground, or in wood-frame or brick ice houses, insulated by straw.
Who invented the Yakhchal?
By 400BC, Persians had developed a system for making ice in winter and storing it throughout the summer and in a hot desert climate, in buildings they called yakhchal.
Who invented Yakhchāl?