Qanat

Qanats are ubiquitous, yet unseen, and a clever way to create streams where none exist in nature. For 3,000 years, they have made life possible in impossible places and still sustain life and livelihoods in many countries today. After 30 years of field research, Dale Lightfoot provides the first comprehensive study of the qanat and sheds new light on their unique locations and distribution, their origins and history, their ecology, current status and use.
Qanats are remarkably engineered underground aqueducts, using gravity to bring water to villages and towns where reliable flowing surface water is scarce or absent. Although an ancient technology, more than 46,000 of them still flow around the world today, with their sustainable nature making them a focus of renewed interest.
Richly illustrated with images and a series of original maps, this is the most complete record to date of the locations and distribution of qanats worldwide, including examples from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Central Asia, China, India, Mexico and South America.

Dale R. Lightfoot is an American geographer, academic and researcher. He is Professor Emeritus of Geography and a former Fulbright Program Advisor at Oklahoma State University, USA.

Preface
Acknowledgements
The Tradition and Global Diffusion of Qanats
Chapter 1: Form and Function of Qanats
Chapter 2: Construction and Distribution of Qanats
Chapter 3: Origins and Global History of Qanats
The Regional Geography of Qanats
Chapter 4: Iran: The Mother Lode
Chapter 5: Central and South Asia
Chapter 6: Eastward Passages: China, Korea, Japan
Chapter 7: The Arabian Peninsula
Chapter 8: Iraq
Chapter 9: Turkey and the Caucasus
Chapter 10: Syria and the Levant
Chapter 11: North Africa
Chapter 12: The Qanats of Europe
Chapter 13: The Chain Wells of Cyprus
Chapter 14: Underground Aqueducts in the Canary Islands
Chapter 15: To the New World
Completing the Story and the View Ahead
Chapter 16: Refining the Picture: Dating and Visualizing Qanats
Chapter 17: The Restoration and Future of Qanats
Notes
References