Before the natural disaster occurred, the first thing everyone thought of to cool down in the summer was to stay in an air-conditioned room. Air conditioning was once considered one of the greatest inventions.
However, similar cooling methods existed in ancient times. One measure of a family's heritage, one of the standards by which it could be called a noble family, was whether or not it had an Ice Storage Room.
The most common method of cooling in ancient times was to collect ice blocks in winter and store them in underground ice storage rooms, to be used in the summer.
Before air conditioning became widespread, many places still relied on ice for cooling in the summer. However, by then, people had discovered the use of saltpeter, so there was no need to collect ice in winter.
