{"id":14547,"date":"2017-03-09T09:47:41","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T09:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/?page_id=14547"},"modified":"2026-01-23T14:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:32:24","slug":"qanat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/qanat\/","title":{"rendered":"Qanat: Discovering Iran&#8217;s Ingenious Ancient Water System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Qanats, are 3,000-year-old marvels of engineering in deserts, many of which are still in use throughout Iran. Beginning in the Iron Age, surveyors\u2014having found an elevated source of water, usually at the head of a former river valley or even in a cave lake\u2014would cut long, sloping tunnels from the water source to where it was needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The orderly holes still visible above ground are air shafts, bored to release dust and provide oxygen to the workers who dug the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/persian-qanat\/\" title=\"Qanat: Iran&#8217;s Ancient Water Management System\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"75572\">qanats<\/a> by hand, sometimes as far as forty miles. The tunnels eventually open at ground level to form vivid oases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Beneath Iran&#039;s Dusty Desert Lie Ancient Water Tunnels Still in Use | National Geographic\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8lS_ar5UpiU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Constructing qanats was a painstaking task, made even more so by the need for great precision. The angle of the tunnel\u2019s slope had to be steep enough to allow the water to flow freely without stagnating\u2014but too steep and the water would flow with enough force to speed erosion and collapse the tunnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although difficult work\u2014even after completion, qanats require yearly maintenance\u2014the irrigation tunnels allowed agriculture to bloom in the arid desert. The technology spread, through Silk Road trade and Muslim conquest, and qanats can be found as far as Morocco and Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Video: Beneath Iran\u2019s Dusty Desert Lie Ancient Water Tunnels Still in Use &#8211; National Geographic<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Step into the subterranean world of the Qanat system in Iran, an ingenious engineering marvel that sustained life in the desert for millennia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15780,1],"tags":[5239],"class_list":["post-14547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-attractions","category-tourism-iran","tag-qanat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfiran.com\/mag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}