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India's Forgotten Stepwells
- sksk 11y agoThey are very beautiful when dry. However, navigating these steps when there is water is not easy -- they get very slippery when the water level goes down but algae is still present in the supposedly drier steps. A cylindrical design where the steps go around the well with sealable openings may provide similar benefit with little maintenance overhead.
- ngoel36 11y agoI took some friends on a sightseeing tour of the country last Fall - one of the most memorable sights was Chand Baori (Abhaneri), about 2/3 of the way between Agra and Jaipur. The place was absolutely stunning, and it had maybe 3 visitors in the two hours while we were there. It can only be stopped at if traveling by car, and while it's a tad more treacherous than plane/train, it's the only way I'll travel between the two cities if I have the time. You'll get to experience some amazing scenery along the way, and it cost no more than $100 for the journey in a large A/C car!
- arihant 11y agoWhen I visited one of these in Agra last Fall, I assumed it to be either a bath or an aquarium to keep exotic animals. Some had so many tiny windows and grills, I thought they might be designed to use as laundry places. It's interesting that all of these were simply wells.
- akshayB 11y agoI have visited many of the places mentioned in the article. In terms of architecture they are beautiful but now all the places are in bad shape. The government and local population make no interest in saving the history.
- lpgauth 11y agoHow timely! I'm currently visiting India and noticed some stairs to nowhere yesterday. That's most likely what is was :)
- Camillo 11y agoThey may have been forgotten by tourism, but not by videogame level design.
- joshvm 11y agoMonument Valley is a great example of this!
- MrJagil 11y agoIs that a joke or do you have any examples? Links would be great.
- _nedR 11y agoI don't think any games were specifically inspired by step-wells (would be glad to contradicted with examples) but you point out a great place for game devs to draw inspiration from.
- Turing_Machine 11y agoNice architecture, but man, those things must've been a public health nightmare. Anything that got tracked in on anyone's feet when the water was low would have eventually have wound up in the water supply when the level increased.
- mirimir 11y agoYes, for sure. However, they predate germ theory by centuries. And as the article notes, the British did consider them "a public health nightmare".
- arihant 11y agoWells, in general, are a public health nightmare in India. Most of India, except a few states, has heavy quantities of fluoride in the soil. Ground water is not portable and drinkable because of this. India has suffered numerous episodes of widespread fluorosis. Removal of fluoride to normal levels is one of the major expenditures of water works.
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- galtwho 11y agoand hence they had strict rules of hygiene then... many passed on as superstition but served a purpose... The Indian form of greeting of Namaste as opposed to Hand shake is one such practice...
- random_ind_dude 11y agoI can't find anything on the Internet to support the theory that greeting by way of Namaste was practiced for hygiene reasons. Do you have any citations for that?
- jstanley 11y agoI think galtwho is saying that the people who said Namaste instead of shaking hands were more likely to pass on that greeting as they were less likely to die of a handshake illness. I.e. it came about through natural selection, rather than because someone had decided it was healthier.
- xenadu02 11y agoYeah this is great... In 1700 India had a population ~127 million people. In 1200 it was certainly much Lowe than that. Is the claim that this ancient technology would solve all of India's water problems for 1+ billion people?
- themartorana 11y agoNo? I'm pretty sure the article was more about the amazing architecture (see: pictures) and it may help with water retention for small amounts of the population. It's no silver bullet.
- jsudhams 11y agoYes, but any amout on water saving before it goes to ocean will help us. I am not seeing any less rain (observation) but definitely the ponds and lakes in villages and city like bangalure has come down to about 1/4th now
- cubancigar11 11y agoYes absolutely. Chennai used to be called a city of lakes, and now even Pallikaranai[1] is seeing disastrous development. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallikaranai_wetland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallikaranai_wetland
- jsudhams 11y agoChennai is a classic dead case. That city could have been maintained like London with water ways and road ways. Now they completely forgot about even tap water. Based on Thirukkural[1] if there was one thing that king/ruler should do that would be providing water to citizens free. It is very sad. [1] http://www.gokulnath.com/thirukuralsections http://www.gokulnath.com/thirukuralsections
- cubancigar11 11y agoThe old water ways built by British have turned into dumpyards over which poor people have built bridges of wooden planks and they live their. Mismanagement of resources at its finest.
- mirimir 11y agoOK, so a hole with steps is great when numerous people must walk down to the water level. But keeping junk out, while letting people in, is a hard problem. As historic places, they of course ought to be maintained. But today, deep cisterns with pumps make much more sense. Or maybe better, groundwater recharge, because you get natural filtration.
- arcb 11y agoQue Dark Knight Rises references :)
- _nedR 11y agoYou are being downvoted to hell, but you have my thanks for pointing that out. According to http://whenonearth.net/walk-the-3500-narrow-steps-of-chand-baori/ http://whenonearth.net/walk-the-3500-narrow-steps-of-chand-b... ( amazing pictures) the Chand Baori was used as a shooting location in The Fall, The Dark Knight Rises and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
- qCOVET 11y agoThanks op for the link .. great pictures! India's historical legacy is absolutely breath taking. From the beautiful palaces in Jaipur, to the ultimate gift of Love in Agra, India's rich heritage tells stories of architectural break throughs, scientific explorations, mathematical discoveries and heart wrenching sagas of love. I used to live in India in early 1990s and I can't wait to go back and visit this beautiful land of kind and generous people, where Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christians are united by the fabric of 'Jai Hind' and where the whole nation comes to a stand still when a game of cricket is being played...lol When I look at these architectural gems, I wonder how it might have been when it was busy with life. I am sure these structures served as focal points of communities and unfortunately now lie in absolute ruins of dilapidation and neglect.
- roel_v 11y agoAny construction engineers here? How would one go about building something like this? Do you have to dig a hole big enough to build the whole thing in, then re-fill the sides with sand? Is it possible to gradually go deeper, i.e. build a level under an existing level, or do you have to wait for the dry season and then rush to get it completed before the lowest levels are flooded come the next wet season? That seems impossible, given the size of some of these things. I'm wondering because I'd like to build a wine cellar similar in concept to these things (a spiraling staircase with an entrance from above only), but I want to get some insight into building methods before inviting contractors. (for anyone who like underground structures, see www.spiralcellars.co.uk ).
- theoh 11y agoNot a construction engineer but an architectural historian. Reading between the lines of descriptions of these wells, I'd say they started as a narrow shaft (traditional "well" shape) which was progressively excavated and widened to create the setback steps. I am 90% sure they didn't dig a huge cuboid hole down to the water table, build the structure inside and then backfill.
- roel_v 11y agoYeah some of them look like this (the conical ones), but the huge ones in the pictures with the many stories seem to be 'square' temple-like. I'd imagine that building those pillars with 'decks' between each layers isn't something you can gradually add. Intriguing.
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- shabinesh 11y agoThanks OP! I was at the Adalaj step well in Gujarat couple of months back, Its amazing to see these structure's usefulness to the common people and beautiful carvings. Inside the step well the temperature is very cool like an AC despite the burning ~43 deg Celsius outside.
- VOOdoo2U 11y agoHello all - I'm Victoria, the author of this 3-year old stepwell story, but the one on ThisIsColossal last week went viral and spawned all his miraculous hoopla. Barely anyone even read that article and I couldn't get anything published, anywhere, until last week. I've been working in total obscurity for years, so please, if anyone wants to know more or I can answer questions, I'm so happy to. Though honestly, there a whole bunch I don't know, and no-one does. If I'm using your site incorrectly, forgive this poor newb. My crazed-geek-genius-artist-brother frequents it and is impressed by me, finally. Btw if you're interested (since I owe him) here's his most recent Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/780943604/fizzbuzz?ref=project_link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/780943604/fizzbuzz?ref=... Thank you so very much for your interest -