Figuring out how to stay cool is probably the least of your worries lately—though there’s solace in knowing summer season’s right around the corner. In a few months, when it heats up, you’ll likely be begging for the frost you’re now scraping off your windshield. But, while AC and refrigeration will be at our fingertips when the mugginess gets too much, did you ever wonder how people in the past chilled out when the weather got too hot? It’s tempting to imagine our ancient ancestors being technologically unsophisticated and backwards, but that simply wasn’t the case; as far back as 400 B.C., even in the scorching desserts of Persia (modern Iran), industrious humans figured out how to harness the cold via ingenious architecture and simple materials to create massive refrigeration units called yakhchāls—which literally means “ice pit.” While you may fancy sipping hot chocolate in the cold winter now, in a few …
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