| The ice houses had usually domes for protection of the ice storage, but the study revealed other types, wall-protected or underground, which were predominantly used for commercial ice house operation in the big cities. In total the study located 129 ice house sites on the fringe of the large deserts, but with remains of ice houses on only 104 of them. On the basis of the comprehensive survey, the dissertation develops a typology and the distribution of ice houses in the landscape. | The majority of the ice houses found were of the dome type as seemingly the walled and underground ice houses attracted only little interest. The future prospects for the remaining ice houses are bleak. Only partial restoration has taken place in a few locations. Ice houses went out of use in the middle of the twentieth century when the advent of electricity made ice-making an individual household exercise. |