So Cool!

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The Romans had a name for those sultry sweltering days of July and August: the Dog Days of summer. They thought the oppressive heat was caused by the star Sirius also known as the Dog Star which rises and sets with the sun during the summer months.

But the Romans didn’t just talk about the weather. They also gave a lot of thought to finding ways to keep cool as did most ancient peoples who lived in hot climates. Why should we care how people chilled out thousands of years ago? As it turns out many of their solutions are still great ways to beat the summer heat.

If you’ve ever explored a cave you already know the temperature inside is cooler than the air outside. An underground room such as a basement will also usually be cooler than the rooms on upper levels. While our early ancestors instinctively gravitated to these dark and deep places to get away from the blazing sun not everyone liked to live in damp and completely sunless spaces. Some people therefore discovered that using mud to build houses could keep the interiors relatively cool while allowing in some light through either a hole in the roof or small windows.

Mud dwellings built by the Pueblo Indians in the American Southwest are still standing. You can also find mud houses in many parts of Africa. But other early peoples such as a few ancestors of the Pueblo Indians found a loftier way to stay cool: They built homes under the ridge of a cliff to create shade. A remarkable example is the 13th-century Cliff Palace found in Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park. Dwellings for about 100 people were built into a cliff whose massive upper ridge sheltered many of the buildings from the hot sun for at least part of the day.