" Like snow in summer": A luxury product in the Land of israel and Syria

The use of snow during the summer to cool fruits and beverages or in combination with them was accepted practice in the ancient civilization of the Land of Israel, Syria, and the Far East. This usage is referred to in earlier periods, while the Middle Ages are particularly rich in sources documenting it. The snow came from Mt. Hermon and the mountains of Lebanon. Inhabitants of the region would collect the snow in the winter and store it in special cellars. When summer came, they would sell the snow to buyers in the streets of Damascus and northern Syria and even to regions further south, as remote as Jerusalem and Jaffa. In regions in which it never snowed, particularly Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula with their hot climates, snow was considered a luxury product of economic value. Its use was one of the definitive hallmarks of affluent urban society. Accounts of the trade in snow, which was largely controlled by the ruling authority, exist as early as the First Muslim Period (7th to 11th centuries), and are more numerous in the Mamluk Period. Snow for the rulers of Egypt was sent regularly by sea, and overland, in special caravans consisting of an escort of guards and an expert in snow handling, whose job was to ensure that the snow did not melt and that it arrived clean and untainted. The Muslim rulers even took pains to send shipments of snow to Mecca in the years when the hajj was held during the hot summer months. Preserving the snow and transporting it in summer without having it melt was accomplished by compressing it into ice blocks inside special containers with various insulation materials. The practice of using snow to cool beverages in the hot summer days continued in Damascus and the villages at the foot of Mt. Hermon until the first half of the twentieth century, ending only when the modern electric refrigerator made its appearance.