Karez is called "karie" in Xinjiang Uyghur, "kanatz" in Iranian Persian, and "kanatz" in Russian. lplltk). In the history of various provinces in mainland my country, there have been many names. For example, it is called "Jingqu" in Shaanxi, "Shuixiang" in Shanxi, "Hundred Eyes of Wells" in Gansu, and "underground channels" in some places. Karez is actually a grand underground water conservancy project in arid areas. This project uses the ground slope to divert groundwater for gravity irrigation, and consists of four parts: vertical shafts, underground culverts, surface open channels, and waterlogging dams (reservoirs). The "small round earth bag" we saw in the Gobi Desert and the "earth pit" that Mr. Lin saw were the first part of the shaft of the project. The function of the shaft is for ventilation and for lifting soil when digging and repairing the karez. The maximum depth is more than 90 meters. Underdrains are artificial channels dug underground to connect various vertical shafts. This is the main body of the project. The shortest one in Turpan is a few hundred meters, and the longest one is more than 20 kilometers. Open channels are diversion channels on the ground. Undercanals divert groundwater to open channels on the ground. The open channels then lead the water directly to fields for irrigation, or to waterlogging dams for storage for future production and daily use.
It is said that there are currently more than 40 countries in the world with karez. There are more than 1,000 karez wells in Turpan. The total length of its underground canals is about 5,000 kilometers, which is close to the length of the Yellow River and equivalent to the mileage from Urumqi to Harbin. It is called the "underground canal" by the geography community and is as famous as the Great Wall and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. One of the three great projects in ancient China. It is said to be "great" because, firstly, its function is extremely important; secondly, because the project is vast and arduous. People have many comments about its function, such as saying that it is the "bloodline of the oasis", "the source of the oasis", "the lifeblood of the Fire Continent", "the source of life", "the sweet spring of heaven", etc. Such a good reputation is fully deserved by Qanat.
Turpan is located in the basin in the eastern part of the Tianshan Mountains. It has an altitude of -140 meters and an area of ??2,085 square kilometers below sea level. It is one of the lowest areas in the world. Because it is far away from the ocean and surrounded by high mountains, it is difficult for moist air to invade. The rainfall is very small, with an average of only about 19 mm over the years. However, the evaporation is very large, with an average of more than 3608 mm over the years, thus forming a very unique and strange landscape. Dry and hot climate. There is little surface runoff, and the highest surface temperature in July can reach 80 degrees Celsius. It has been called the "Fire Continent" since ancient times. Many years ago, Tang Monk and his disciples encountered the Flame Mountain on their way to seek scriptures from the West. The Flame Mountain was located in the middle of the basin not far from Turpan. At that time, the Flame Mountain was burning with eight hundred miles of flames, blocking the westward path of Tang Sanzang's master and disciples. Fortunately, Monkey Sun was very clever and borrowed Princess Iron Fan's banana fan with a thousand-jun rod to blow up the wind and rain and extinguish the flames. He was able to cross the Flame Mountain and embark on the path of learning scriptures again. Of course, that is just a story of gods and demons imagined by Mr. Wu Chengen, but it can also be seen from it that Turpan has been a very hot place since ancient times. During our visit to Turpan, we heard that many children there who have grown to teenagers have never seen a heavy rain day. Whenever it rains heavily, people are as happy as if they have seen God, and they take their children out to enjoy the scenery. rain. Perhaps this statement is an exaggeration, but it also reveals the harsh reality of Turpan’s lack of rain and drought. However, in such a hot and drought-ridden place, there was an "oasis farming economy" that lasted for thousands of years. In the vast and barren Gobi Desert, the oasis is lush and green, with abundant grains and prosperous livestock. Crops such as wheat, barley, rice, corn, sorghum, beans, sesame, cotton, grapes and various fruits are grown in the fields in rotation all year round. Horses, cattle, sheep and other livestock are grazed on the slopes all year round. "Oasis farming" has nurtured people of all ethnic groups in Turpan for generations, created unique folk customs and national cultural traditions, and nurtured Turpan into a splendid "Pearl of the Silk Road." Friends, in Turpan, when you taste the sweet grapes under the grape trellis, when you enjoy the famous "roast whole lamb" ("hand-caught lamb") in the flavor restaurant, have you ever thought about these? How did the world-famous delicacies of fruits and vegetables come from? It's very simple, as you would imagine, it is produced by "Oasis Farming". However, have you ever thought about how “oasis farming” came about? The gurgling water under your feet will tell you that it flows from a karez. "Oasis farming" flowing out of the karez is not a story from "Arabian Nights" or "Journey to the West". It is a miracle on earth that has created a better life for people over thousands of years. In Turpan, in Xinjiang, and in all desert areas, there is an indisputable fact and an irrefutable political knowledge, that is, oases are rare and extremely valuable. If there is water, there will be oases; if there are oases, there will be people; if there are people, there will be farming; if there is farming, there will be human life. It was because the ancestors of Turpan dug karez wells to drain the snow water from the Tianshan Mountains into the groundwater under the Gobi Desert that they opened up oases and thus created an oasis agricultural civilization. Ancient Western cities such as Loulan and Milan, which were once "Pearls of the Silk Road" in history, suffered from lack of water and their oases were gradually wiped out by wind and sand, turning into piles of loess in the vast desert.
Think about Loulan and Milan under the desert, and then look at Turpan, the "pearl" in the Gobi Desert today. Who doesn't realize that karez is indeed the lifeblood of the "Fire Continent" and the source of the oasis!
The karez in Turpan is generally 1 meter long, 0.7 meters wide and dozens of meters deep; the culvert is generally 1.6 meters high and 0.7 meters wide. How much earth does it take to dig a shaft or a culvert? And how much earth has been dug out of the countless shafts on the ground and the more than 5,000 kilometers of culverts underground? I'm afraid no one can tell clearly. At the karez site, the schematic diagram hanging on the side wall of the canal tells people that whether it is a vertical shaft or an culvert, they were all dug out by the ancestors with simple tools such as cutters, tamarisk baskets and hemp ropes, shovel by basket. The sign said: "It takes several years or decades to dig a karez." The mammoth and arduous project and the miracle of the ancestors' battle against heaven and earth are no less than "The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountain". Legend has it that there was an old man in Turpan who kept digging wells throughout his life. He dug a karez that was hundreds of kilometers long by himself. People say that he is the "Foolish Old Man" of modern times! Such a huge and arduous project can only be excavated with a few extremely simple tools. Can you imagine how many such "foolish old men" it would take to excavate the more than 5,000 kilometers of karez in Turpan and how many years it would take? "The deeds are really touching!" "It's amazing!" "Great, amazing!" There were waves of admiration from tourists at the edge of the well. The water in the canal was gurgling. As I took a sip from the canal, I couldn't help but express a few emotional poems from the bottom of my heart: "Wells and canals are dug underground, and sweat springs are flowing. Who knows that every drop of water in the cup is hard work!"< /p>
Qanat is not only a material natural landscape, but also a spiritual cultural landscape. Now, Qanat has become a major tourism project in Turpan, attracting a large number of tourists every year. However, during the tour, if you only treat the karez as a simple natural landscape, you may find it boring and not worth seeing much. However, if you view it as a cultural landscape, you may find that it has accumulated a unique cultural value that transcends time and space, and the more you look at it, the more interested you become. I think one of the values ??of this is that the karez enlightens us: "There is no perfect way for mankind!" Since "God" created human beings, he must also create a natural environment for human beings to survive. The natural environment ranges from beautiful to harsh. The beautiful natural environment is of course suitable for human survival, and the harsh natural environment will not be completely "unbeatable". There must be places in it that can be exploited by human beings. The question is whether it can be discovered and transformed. In Turpan, "God" created a "unparalleled" Gobi Desert for it, and at the same time created a "Tianshan Snow Water" that can be utilized. The ancestors of Turpan were not intimidated by the harsh environment. Instead, they used their ingenuity to find the snow water from the Tianshan Mountains that could be used. They used their ingenuity to create a karez to drain the snow water from the Tianshan Mountains, creating a "green treasure house" that could be used by people. The "Fire Continent" in the restricted area of ??life was transformed into "Paradise on Earth". The Turpan Karez is an example of how humans are good at getting along with nature, skillful in asking for it from nature, and thus able to survive in harsh environments. The cultural value of karez embodies the philosophy of the mutual give-and-take relationship between man and nature. The ancestors of Turpan were kind. In creating the karez, they not only left behind abundant material wealth, but also created precious spiritual wealth. This is a precious historical and cultural heritage. We should cherish it even more, inherit it, carry it forward, and jointly create a better living environment for literature.