Philip Kennicott visited New Gourna and Cairo in Egypt and Diyarbakir in Turkey to explore historic cooling techniques. Sima Diab photographed them in Egypt. Dec. 28 at 6:30 a.m.

Egypt is jam-packed with historical monuments, ancient temples, and artifacts that force you to consider how short your time is on Earth. When you are looking at a statue that has survived for ...

And then here, ancient Egyptian refrigerator. You'd want a cool drink, on a day like this, you can understand why. And the only way to do this was to sink the vessels into a pit deep in the ground.