Use of Ice at the Time of Turkish Seljuks and Icehouses in Konya and Its Surrounding Region

The method of storing the ice collected in winter and the compacted snow in the wells by wrapping grass and hay is estimated to be at least 3000 years old practice. It has been understood that the Turks have used snow and ice, they also known the method of ice and snow storage since Central Asia. Although the temperature of the geographic regions in which they live was generally low, Turks still needed snow and ice to cool down due to the increasing temperature in summer. In the Medieval Age, various techniques have been developed for the storage of snow and ice, which are difficult and troublesome materials to obtain. Food that needs to be kept cold in West Asia is protected by snow and ice in mountains and natural ice caves. In Anatolia; during the Seljuk period, the foodstuffs were preserved with ice in primitive but still functional ice houses and their transportation was carried out with ice if needed. During the Turkish Seljuks period, 10 icehouses which were built by the foundations were identified in the regions of Konya, Karaman Larende , Beyşehir, Akşehir and Niğde. Five of them are in the center of Konya. Two of the remaining icehouses are in Akşehir and the rest of them are in Karaman Larende , Beyşehir and Niğde. Built in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, these ice houses are important not only for their preservation but also for their architecture and ice-freezing technique.In this study; information about the icehouses in Konya and its surrounding region would be provided with the help of endowment charters and sources of Turkish Seljuks and the Ottoman archival documents