To: mobarne@attglobal.net <mobarne@attglobal.net>
From: John@saucicaves.com
Date: Wednesday, October 15,  
Subject: qanats
 
 
Subject: Qanats from Mexico to Jeddah
.............
We encountered our first qanat just outside Guadalajara, Mexico in 1985,
only we didn't know it was a qanat. We were, however, a bit suspicious of a
cave with 75 "entrances" nicely spaced about every 11 meters, most of them
in a straight line. We brought quite a few caving friends into La Cueva de
la Venta as we were then calling it, hoping one of them could enlighten us
as to just what it was. The enlightenment, however, didn't come until ten
years later when we walked into the "cave" with archeologists Phil Weigand
and Chris Beekman. "This is a Persian qanat," they announced. Eventually we
mapped it and told the local historians about it . Apparently there's not a
lot of info on qanats in Mexico.
Once we described it to a geologist working in northern Mexico, however, he
claimed he knew of a small town in the desert, which totally depended on a
qanat for their water supply! Curious to see one of these ancient filtration
galleries in actual operation, we accompanied Nick Hawkes to the "pueblito"
of Cedras, in Zacatecas, where their qanat is kept in pristine condition and
well appreciated by everyone living there. The oldest folks in town had no
idea when it had been built or that the technology had come from Armenia or
Persia across Arabia and Africa to Spain and from there to Mexico!
 
Two years ago I visited a qanat only two hours from Jeddah. It brings water
to a prosperous farm in an otherwise desolate, dry area. We've also been
told that old Jeddah's main source of water used to be a very long qanat
which apparently played a role in resisting a siege by the Portuguese once
upon a time.
 
Can anyone else tell us about qanats in other parts of Saudi Arabia?
 
John Pint