The
yakhchal or better yakhchaal or yakhchāl (یخچال) is the Old Persian version of an ice pit. The
first of these yakhchals were built as early as 400 BC. Above the earth the
structure is a cone. During winter water from the qanat would freeze inside the
pit or behind a wall (East-West direction) next to the yakhchal into blocks
that could be transported into the pit.
The cool
air enters and stays down, while the warmer air moves upwards in the conical
construction. The yakhchal has think, insulating walls made of “sand, clay,
egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash“, which is also water resistant. Sometimes
windcatchers or wind towers, baadgirs or badgirs (بادگیر), are used to cool the air.
You might ask, why people took troubles to build such structure. The
answer might be falude (فالوده) or
sometimes spelled palude (پالوده), a traditional Iranian cold dessert,
made of “thin vermicelli-sized noodles made from starch in a semi-frozen syrup
containing sugar and rose water”.
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