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Axia village just upstream from Bezeklik Buddhist grottoes near Turpan. Moslem cemetery is on the south side of town and overlooks the river that is fed by karez. Karez are man-made irrigation tunnels, an engineering technique that is believed to have been imported from Iran thousands of years ago by travelers along the silk road. Most of the karez are now in disuse due to a lack of maintenance and the construction of an irrigation canal between the karez and their groundwater source at the base of the Tian Shan Mountains. The predominant cash crop here are grapes used primarily for raisins, and brick buildings used for raisin-drying are seen in grid patterns in the upper right.

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STNMTZ_20061001_2079.tif
Copyright
©2006 George Steinmetz
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4368x2912 / 36.4MB
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China Air
Axia village just upstream from Bezeklik Buddhist grottoes near Turpan. Moslem cemetery is on the south side of town and overlooks the river that is fed by karez. Karez are man-made irrigation tunnels, an engineering technique that is believed to have been imported from Iran thousands of years ago by travelers along the silk road. Most of the karez are now in disuse due to a lack of maintenance and the construction of an irrigation canal between the karez and their groundwater source at the base of the Tian Shan Mountains. The predominant cash crop here are grapes used primarily for raisins, and brick buildings used for raisin-drying are seen in grid patterns in the upper right.

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