It you haven't been to Maybod, near Yazd, it is worth strolling down Alavi St to inspect a large mud dome by the old city wall. This remarkable brick and mud construction, tapering to a tiny aperture at the top, is a yakhchal (ice house), used for storing ice. The shallow pools shaded from the sun by the dome freeze over in winter and, in the days before refrigerators, the precious harvest of ice was broken into blocks and stored under the dome.
Layers of straw between each block were used to prevent heat transmission and to avoid the blocks sticking together. In a hot, arid climate the availability of ice year-round allowed for the storage of food in mid-summer and for cooling drinks and preparing ice cream and sherbets that are not obvious desert delicacies.
