Turpan irrigation system

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Model of the qanat system , Karez Museum Turpan
Karez Museum Turpan

The Turpan water system is an underground well system for irrigation in the area of the municipality Gaochang in the city of Turpan , Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang of the People's Republic of China .

So-called Karez irrigation systems, which in China go back to the time of the Western Han Dynasty , are mainly found in Turpan , Kumul ( Hami ) and Kuqa . The Persian word Qanat (or Karez ; Chinese  坎尔 井 , Pinyin Kǎn'ěrjǐng ) denotes tunnels or horizontal wells dug horizontally in the mountain . This irrigation system can be used to intercept the deep groundwater, which comes from the melted snow of the Tianshan Mountains, and channel it into the oases in underground channels, protected from evaporation .

There are over 1000 of them in the Turpan Basin . The number of Karez systems peaked in the 1950s, when a total of up to 1,300 systems were in operation. In 2009 the number of actively used karez was still 400. The active and unused channels of the irrigation system of Gaochang have a total length of approx. 5000 km. The depth of a well is up to 70 m and the length of an underground channel is usually 3-4 kilometers (with individual systems reaching a length of up to 30 kilometers).

The irrigation system, along with the Great Wall and the Great Canal, is referred to as the "Three Man- Made Great Construction Projects" ( 三大 工程 , Sanda gongcheng ). Under the name Kan'erjing dixia shuili gongcheng ( 坎尔 井 地下 水利工程 , Kǎn'ěrjǐng dìxià shuǐlì gōngchéng ) it has been on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China in Xinjiang (6-1077) since 2006 , and it has also been on Registered on the Tentative List of the People's Republic of China for nomination for World Heritage.

Web links

Commons : Turpan Irrigation System  - Collection of Images

literature

  • Bertil Mächtle et al: The Age and Origin of Karez Systems of Silk Road Oases around Turpan, Xinjiang, PR of China. In: Liang Emlyn Yang et al. (Ed.): Socio-Environmental Dynamics along the Historical Silk Road. Springer, Cham 2019, ISBN 978-3-030-00728-7 , pp. 359-378 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bertil Mächtle et al .: The Age and Origin of Karez Systems of Silk Road Oases around Turpan, Xinjiang, PR of China. In: Liang Emlyn Yang et al. (Ed.): Socio-Environmental Dynamics along the Historical Silk Road. Springer, Cham 2019, ISBN 978-3-030-00728-7 , pp. 359–378, here p. 365 ( online ).
  2. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Karez Wells - UNESCO World Heritage Center. Retrieved April 18, 2017 .

Coordinates: 42 ° 52 ′ 22 ″  N , 89 ° 23 ′ 52 ″  E