Qanat

A qanāt (Persian: قنات‎‎/کاریز) is a gently sloping underground channel with a series of vertical access shafts, used to transport water from an aquifer under a hill. Qanāts create a reliable supply of water for human settlements and irrigation in hot, arid, and semi-arid climates.

The qanat technology is known to have been developed by the Persian people sometime in the early 1st millennium BC, and spread from there slowly westward and eastward.

The value of the qanat is directly related to the quality, volume, and regularity of the water flow. Much of the population of Iran and other arid countries in Asia and North Africa historically depended upon the water from qanats; the areas of population corresponded closely to the areas where qanats are possible. Although a qanat was expensive to construct, its long-term value to the community, and thereby to the group that invested in building and maintaining it, was substantial.

Etymology

Qanat is the Arabic word for "channel". Qanats are also called kārīz (or kārēz from Persian: كاريز‎‎) (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, derived from Persian: كاهریز‎‎), kahan (from Persian: کهن‎‎), kahriz/kəhriz (Azerbaijan); khettara (Morocco); galería (Spain); falaj (from Arabic: فلج‎) (United Arab Emirates and Oman); Kahn (Baloch) or foggara/fughara (North Africa). Alternative terms for qanats in Asia and North Africa are kakuriz, chin-avulz, and mayun. Common variants of qanat in English include kanat, khanat, kunut, kona, konait, ghanat, ghundat.