Overview
Qanats are ubiquitous, yet unseen, and a clever way to create streams where none exist in nature. For 3,000 years, they have made life possible in impossible places and still sustain life and livelihoods in many countries today. After 30 years of field research, Dale Lightfoot provides the first comprehensive study of the qanat and sheds new light on their unique locations and distribution, their origins and history, their ecology, current status and use. Qanats are remarkably engineered underground aqueducts, using gravity to bring water to villages and towns where reliable flowing surface water is scarce or absent. Although an ancient technology, more than 46,000 of them still flow around the world today, with their sustainable nature making them a focus of renewed interest. Richly illustrated with images and a series of original maps, this is the most complete record to date of the locations and distribution of qanats worldwide, including examples from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Central Asia, China, India, Mexico and South America.
Full Product Details
Author: Dale Lightfoot
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781838602178
ISBN 10: 1838602178
Pages: 880
Publication Date: 19 September 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
This book gives us a multidimensional insight into the ancient technique of qanat. “Qanat: The Stream of Wells” is an invaluable and thorough report that clearly shows how qanats could create a special cultural landscape that is the manifestation of millennia of human adaptations to a changing environment. The encyclopaedic nature of this book, which encompasses a wide range of qanat-related subjects across time and place, never detracts from its value as an analytical study that can change our current perception of qanats. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand qanats in a global context and from a holistic perspective. * Majid Labbaf Khaneiki, UNESCO Chair on Aflaj Studies and Archaeo-Hydrology *
This book gives us a multidimensional insight into the ancient technique of qanat. “Qanat: The Stream of Wells” is an invaluable and thorough report that clearly shows how qanats could create a special cultural landscape that is the manifestation of millennia of human adaptations to a changing environment. The encyclopaedic nature of this book, which encompasses a wide range of qanat-related subjects across time and place, never detracts from its value as an analytical study that can change our current perception of qanats. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand qanats in a global context and from a holistic perspective. * Majid Labbaf Khaneiki, UNESCO Chair on Aflaj Studies and Archaeo-Hydrology * Supported by exhaustive data, maps and diagrams, Lightfoot’s study answers a felt need for a multi-disciplinary exploration of historic water management wherein hydrology, geography, landscape studies and social history converge to articulate patterns of human sustainability, their past and their future. * Yaaminey Mubayi, Historian and Community Development Specialist *
Author Information
Dale R. Lightfoot is an American geographer, academic and researcher. He is Professor Emeritus of Geography and a former Fulbright Program Advisor at Oklahoma State University, USA.
