Sayed Shukrallah (29yo) and Ahmad Zareh (55yo) are well-paid (60,000 rials/day) moqhani, or qanat maintenance men, who work in teams and trade-off tasks, with one on top to work the access winch while the other digs down below. They started working in the qanats when they were boys of 14 and 10 years old respectively. Using gas lamps they pull fallen debris and accumulating minerals from the subterranean canal. The accumulating minerals indicate it’s not the best water for drinking, and if the mineralization is not removed regularly it will close up.
Inside the qanat the water was warm and the air humid, a welcome relief to the cold dry winter wind on the surface. This qanat was parallel to the Mesr/Yaxd highway and is over 60Km long; one of the longest in the country. Each section needs to be cleaned out every 3-5 years, meaning almost continuous maintenance. A piece of pottery found in this system was dated by Carbon 14 to be 2,400 years old, providing a minimum age for the qanat.
- Filename
- STNMTZ_20031101_20.tif
- Copyright
- ©2003 George Steinmetz
- Image Size
- 4913x7113 / 100.0MB
- www.georgesteinmetz.com
- Contained in galleries
- Salt Deserts of Iran
