The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
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Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#2These are cool. One of these gravity-driven miniature aqueducts still flows from the Sierra Nevada directly between Plaza Larga and las Pesas at one of the highest points in the Albaycin in Granada, and (I've heard) is accessible through the basements of the buildings there. It's extremely impressive that someone engineered running water to a hill that high from an even higher source miles away across deep ravines, and that it still flows.
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#3I don’t know why I find water harvesting so fascinating, nifty use of aquifers.
There was a civilisation in the Sahara that had tunnels in the mountain that provided water, I imagine they ran dry.
Persia had (has?) underground tunnels that convey water to farmland.
With the increasing amount of heavy rain fall I’m not sure how much of that can be caught and sequestered.
This was made all the more apparent when there was a sudden downpour in London some years back and the river Fleet, sewer as it is now backed up into the office’s canteen.
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#4There must be hundreds of places around the world who could make use of this.
How many other ones in Spain have been abandoned?
If this was established by the Moors then I would guess other ex-Moor states would have a similar setup.
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#5These are cool. One of these gravity-driven miniature aqueducts still flows from the Sierra Nevada directly between Plaza Larga and las Pesas at one of the highest points in the Albaycin in Granada, and (I've heard) is accessible through the basements of the buildings there. It's extremely impressive that someone engineered running water to a hill that high from an even higher source miles away across deep ravines, a…
[deleted]
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#6There must be hundreds of places around the world who could make use of this. How many other ones in Spain have been abandoned? If this was established by the Moors then I would guess other ex-Moor states would have a similar setup.
Yes, throughout Morocco’s south east you will find what’s called khettaras (خطارة). They are underground irrigation network that was used to transport water from the Atlas Mountains to regions about 300km away.They were in used until the late 80s as far as I know.
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#7There must be hundreds of places around the world who could make use of this. How many other ones in Spain have been abandoned? If this was established by the Moors then I would guess other ex-Moor states would have a similar setup.
Yes, throughout Morocco’s south east you will find what’s called khettaras (خطارة). They are underground irrigation network that was used to transport water from the Atlas Mountains to regions about 300km away.They were in used until the late 80s as far as I know.
Wow fascinating, do you have any idea why they stopped being used? Cynical me says to earn some kickback money for building new industrial pipes..
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#8There’s a Dutch company called Groasis that had the nifty idea of planting a tree that goes though a bucket of water, the bucket slowly leaks water into the ground.
Groasis:
https://www.groasis.com/en/technology/how-does-the-reforesta...
The mass of the water provides thermal regulation as well as a trickle of water, which can catch rain as well as being topped up manually.
The overall goal is for the tree to grow down to the aquifer and then thrive. It helps a lot if there’s work to catch storm runoff into the aquifer.
The OP is more about conveying water through the aquifer.
Edit: URL added
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, throughout Morocco’s south east you will find what’s called khettaras (خطارة). They are underground irrigation network that was used to transport water from the Atlas Mountains to regions about 300km away.They were in used until the late 80s as far as I know.
Wow fascinating, do you have any idea why they stopped being used? Cynical me says to earn some kickback money for building new industrial pipes..
You mean like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man-Made_River
Re: The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, throughout Morocco’s south east you will find what’s called khettaras (خطارة). They are underground irrigation network that was used to transport water from the Atlas Mountains to regions about 300km away.They were in used until the late 80s as far as I know.
Wow fascinating, do you have any idea why they stopped being used? Cynical me says to earn some kickback money for building new industrial pipes..
It seems to me that the acequia are an open and distributed technology, so even when the central authority collapsed, each individual community was able to keep the services running based on that technology, for over a thousand years.
Modern irrigation is incredible, modern cities are amazing, modern software connects most humans on the planet. But ... we can learn.