TEHRAN – A restoration work on a historical Yakhchal (ice storage) in Na’in, central Isfahan province, has come to an end, a local tourism official has said.

A budget of 1.5 billion rials ($5,000) was allocated to the project, CHTN quoted Mahmoud Madanian as saying on Thursday.

The project involves strengthening the structure, repairing walls, and restoring the damaged parts, the official added.

The structure was inscribed on the national heritage list in 2005.

When there was no electricity, no refrigerators, and no appliances, people kept a huge amount of water next to the high walls of Yakhchal, which cast a shadow that kept the water cool.

The water turned into ice during the wintertime. Then people cut the ice into many portable parts and put them in the ice house and covered the surface of the ice with special local grass.

This structure is built high to minimize the contact of warm air with the ice surface as the warm air floats upwards. The feature of the ice storage was essential to its functioning.

There were also wells behind the ice storage with a connective canal at the bottom of the ice storage to the wells with a slight slope.

When people piled up the ice, a little amount of water remained under the heap of ice. If the water was not removed it would make the rest of the ice melt. By channeling the water into the well, not only did they prevent the ice stored in the ice house from melting, but also they had cold and tasty water during the summer months when the weather went up to 40 degrees Celsius.

The history of Na’in dates back to nearly 2000 years, which makes it one of the oldest continuously settled towns on the Iranian plateau.

Na’in lies 170 km north of Yazd and 140 km east of Isfahan. Like much of the Iranian plateau, it has a desert climate, with a maximum temperature of 41 °C in summer and a minimum of -9 °C in winter.

During ancient times, the city was at the junction of a desert road that connected Tabas and Mashhad. It used to be an important crossroads on converging trade routes since Sassanid times. Na’in was known for its ceramics and textiles; today it's primarily known for fine hand-knotted carpets and for hand-loomed camel-wool cloaks, which are produced in the neighboring villages.

ABU/MG