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Aerial view of karez near Axia village just upstream from Bezeklik Buddhist grottoes near Turpan. 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.

Filename
STNMTZ_20061001_2291.tif
Copyright
©2006 George Steinmetz
Image Size
4368x2912 / 36.4MB
www.georgesteinmetz.com
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China Air
Aerial view of karez near Axia village just upstream from Bezeklik Buddhist grottoes near Turpan. 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.

All images ©George Steinmetz. Please contact us for usage.