First qanat museum to be launched in Ardakan

The ¿rst qanat (subterranean canal) museum of Iran and the world will open on February 20 concurrent with the ¿rst National Conference on Qanats, the Legacy of Water and Water on February 20 and 21, announced the executive secretary of the conference.

Mohammad-ali Behjati-ardakani told Iran Daily that qanat was an Iranian innovation for channeling water along underground tunnels in the past.

Each qanat is normally an almost horizontal tunnel for collecting water from an underground water source, usually an alluvial fan, into which a mother well is sunk to the appropriate level of the aquifer.

The museum will feature the tools and instruments to make qanats as well as their pictures.

The museum begins with Bahaeddin qanat in Ardakan city in the central province of Yazd which is very old and has long dried up so it has been turned into a tourism route, he said.

The length of this qanat is 25 kilometers of which 600700 meters are built below historical houses in Ardakan and underwent reconstruction and is ready for display. People can walk through the path and exit from another ‘Ab-anbar’ (brick-lined water reservoir).

By walking through the long and winding tunnels, people become familiar with the history of qanat, its