Moayedi Ice House

Qajar-era conical ice store, one of the largest surviving in Iran

The Yakhchāl-e Moayedi is a vast Qajar-era ice house on the western edge of Kerman, with a conical mudbrick dome rising 18 metres over a deep underground chamber. The system — a cleverly engineered low-tech refrigerator — once produced and stored ice through the desert summer, supplying the city's bazaars and the homes of the wealthy through to the early 20th century.

The chamber has been restored as a small museum, with explanatory panels in Persian and English describing the freezing-and-storage cycle. The exterior, on its own in the dusty plain, makes for a striking photograph at any time of day. Free entry; allow half an hour.

things to do sight architecture
A story
The desert ice houses worked on a counter-intuitive principle: water was diverted into a shallow pool on the north side of a tall wall, where it froze on cold winter nights as the wall blocked the sun. The ice was broken up, packed in the underground chamber, and sealed in straw and earth. The dome over the chamber created a steep temperature gradient that kept the ice through the desert summer until October.