3 ms·

Am I the only one that didn't understand how this is suppose to work from reading the first paragrah on the wiki article? My first question right away was: how

Am I the only one that didn't understand how this is suppose to work from reading the first paragrah on the wiki article? My first question right away was: how do they get the water from an "underground aquaduct" to "the surface"? To me it seems the water would have to travel up. But by doing some more research, I understand the water well is higher up in a mountain, and the "underground aquaduct" is traveling down the mountain, and reaches the "surface" when it comes out of the side of the mountain. But the way it is described in the first paragraph of the article didn't make that clear to me. It amazes me that apparently other people don't have this question when reading about an "underground aquaduct" that brings water to the "surface". I would rather describe it as an underground aquaduct inside a mountain, guiding the mountain water to an edge of the mountain where it exits.

strken 3y ago
I didn't realise the water table at higher elevations could be above the ground level of nearby lower elevation land, so I had the same issue. When I first read the article I thought a qanat was a type of stepwell[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepwell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepwell
- Zanius 3y ago
  The water table typically rises and falls with elevation. Depends on the kind of rock/soil in the area.
  - strken 3y ago
    I knew that was true across long distances. I didn't realise the water table could be high above sea level at point A, lower at point B, and yet points A and B could still be close enough to each other to manually dig a tunnel between them.
mercenario 3y ago
Had the exact same question and though the same thing as you ("I can't believe the author didn't think this was an important thing to make clear in the first paragraph") Didn't need much research because the picture later in the article made it clear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat#/media/File:Qanat_cross_section.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat#/media/File:Qanat_cross_... Actually this has been my usual experience with wikipedia, the first paragraphs never make the subject clear to me, I always end up with a lot of questions.

strken 3y ago

I didn't realise the water table at higher elevations could be above the ground level of nearby lower elevation land, so I had the same issue. When I first read the article I thought a qanat was a type of stepwell[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepwell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepwell

Zanius 3y ago
The water table typically rises and falls with elevation. Depends on the kind of rock/soil in the area.
- strken 3y ago
  I knew that was true across long distances. I didn't realise the water table could be high above sea level at point A, lower at point B, and yet points A and B could still be close enough to each other to manually dig a tunnel between them.

mercenario 3y ago

Had the exact same question and though the same thing as you ("I can't believe the author didn't think this was an important thing to make clear in the first paragraph") Didn't need much research because the picture later in the article made it clear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat#/media/File:Qanat_cross_section.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat#/media/File:Qanat_cross_... Actually this has been my usual experience with wikipedia, the first paragraphs never make the subject clear to me, I always end up with a lot of questions.