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A quote from
[80日間世界一周](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%22%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A8%22):

> 巨大な湖が凍ったら **かくや** という景色だった。  
>  _It seemed like a vast frozen lake._

I'm guessing the [「かく」 is this one](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%96%AF%E3%81%8F),
but I don't understand how the 「や」 works. Could this be a set phrase?
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question
particles set-phrases archaic-language particle-や
Meaning of 「かくや（という）」
It's short for
[かくやあらん](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%96%AF%E3%81%8F%E3%82%84%E3%81%82%E3%82%89%E3%82%93),
which is one of the [fixed expressions from archaic
Japanese](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/42724/5010).

  * 斯く: "like this"
  * や: archaic question marker (eighth definition [here](http://jisho.org/word/%E3%82%84); grammatical rule [here](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kobun-adjectives/) and [here](http://www.hello-school.net/haroajapa010037.htm))
  * あらん (あらむ in historical kana usage): あり ("to be") + [む](http://www.hello-school.net/haroajapa009010.htm) ("to seem; should"). → "should be; to seem to be"

So in modern Japanese, it's このようであろうか or こんな感じだろうか.

かくや is used to give an unrealistic/extreme analogy
([～もかくや](http://yourei.jp/%E3%82%82%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8F%E3%82%84), ～ればかくや,
～ならかくや). Your sentence is a typical example of かくや(あらん).
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answer