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A network of ancient underground aqueducts called qanats carry water from wells at the foot of the mountains near Mehriz to nearby agricultural fields and on to the city of Yazd. On the surface, you can see the holes used to access the qanat and bring up the debris during periodic cleaning. Iran's greatest concentration of qanats can be found here in the Mehriz basin, which supplies mountain spring water all the way to Yazd, some 60 km distant without a pump or pipe of any kind.

Qanats were first developed in the deserts of Iran some 2,000 years ago. They start at a hand-dug well up to 100M deep and descend and are very carefully excavated without instruments. They are dug at the precise angle necessary to supply water to a specific surface location at a great distance. Excavation of qanats moves forward at the rate of 1-2 M per day, thus the Mehriz/Yazd qanat took about 100 years of two-man teamwork to complete. Qanats fell into disuse in the past decades with the development of modern dams and irrigation schemes, but are now being restored as planners realize their practicality. There are some 50,000 qanats in Iran, and their use and maintenance are governed by collective agreements.

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©2003 George Steinmetz
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Salt Deserts of Iran
A network of ancient underground aqueducts called qanats carry water from wells at the foot of the mountains near Mehriz to nearby agricultural fields and on to the city of Yazd. On the surface, you can see the holes used to access the qanat and bring up the debris during periodic cleaning. Iran's greatest concentration of qanats can be found here in the Mehriz basin, which supplies mountain spring water all the way to Yazd, some 60 km distant without a pump or pipe of any kind. <br /> <br /> Qanats were first developed in the deserts of Iran some 2,000 years ago. They start at a hand-dug well up to 100M deep and descend and are very carefully excavated without instruments. They are dug at the precise angle necessary to supply water to a specific surface location at a great distance. Excavation of qanats moves forward at the rate of 1-2 M per day, thus the Mehriz/Yazd qanat took about 100 years of two-man teamwork to complete. Qanats fell into disuse in the past decades with the development of modern dams and irrigation schemes, but are now being restored as planners realize their practicality. There are some 50,000 qanats in Iran, and their use and maintenance are governed by collective agreements.

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