Abstract: In the cooling and further treatment of hot white cement clinker wherein the cooling must be protected against exposure to oxygen so that it retains its white color, it is proposed in accordance with the invention that the hot white cement clinker departing the clinker calcining kiln be sprayed with water in an oxygen-free atmosphere and subsequently conducted in counter-current flow relative to a warm drying gas steam which is withdrawn together with the vapors picked up from the cement clinker, being withdrawn separated from the cooled, dried, white cement clinker. The manufacture of white cement clinker upon application of the clinker cooling and clinker drying of the invention requires a considerably lower overall thermal outlay than the manufacture of white cement clinker utilizing previously known clinker cooling methods employing a water bath.