Section 01
Water
Four entries on getting water to a place that has none on the surface: the tunnel that walks it out of the foothills, the domed cistern that keeps it cold, the ice house that freezes it in winter, and the rotation that divides it between fields.
- 01The qanatA tunnel driven uphill from the far end, dug in the dark from a line of vertical shafts, moving water tens of kilometres without a pump and losing almost none of it.
- 02Ab anbarThe domed cistern: stored water kept cold and still below ground, with wind-catchers drawing air across its surface.
- 03YakhchālAn ice house that made ice in a desert, using a shaded pool, a thick tapering wall and radiative cooling on clear nights.
- 04Water sharesA qanat's flow was divided by time, not volume, and the schedule was law — which is why the ledger mattered as much as the tunnel.
The section in four frames
