Visiting Kish Island in Iran - Underground City Kariz

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(Edited)

In the last two posts we had a look at the beach on Kish island in Iran as well as an old Sunni establishment. Today let's have a look at the underground city of Kariz located in the northern part of the island.

The Kariz (meaning aqueduct) on Kish island, covers an area of 10,000 m² and has probably been built around 2500 years ago by the local population there. Due to its arid climate and location in the salty Persian Gulf the people needed fresh water there for their survival. This system was built to collect, purify, and store water and is located up to 12 meters below the ground.

The restoration of this ancient aqueduct system was undertaken by an Iranian living in Germany who saw the uniqueness of this place and wanted to restore it so that many people could appreciate this marvelous construction. Our tour guide told us that he used his private fortunes to do this as the local government were unwilling or unable to help him. That's what I would call a dedication! With the work now finished, this place has been transformed into an underground city with 3 aqueducts, 274 wells as well as recreational sites and facilities (there is also a museum located within it).

You can see an overview of a cafe as well as a little pond here which is very inviting with its cool waters and shade. One also gets a good impression of the depth of this place. The aqueduct system runs within these walls.

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This is one of the main restored aqueducts. It is very well made and one can see that all of the walls are made up of corals and lime stone. In fact the whole island is made up of this material!

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An unknown stone carving. Unfortunately I am not sure about its age, but it might well be thousands of years old. It's interesting that he seems to have horns and it reminds me a bit of ancient Scandinavian art... Could there be a connection? ;)

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The whole city is beautifully decorated with colorful lights and archeological findings (although I think some of them might not be that old). My smartphone camera couldn't handle the blue ;D

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A ventilation shaft; again you can see the depth of this system as well as the lime stone which would have one day been at the floor of the ocean.

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Walking through here is a nice experience. You get to walk over bridges crossing canals and soak in the atmosphere (also quite literally; the air is somewhat damp and cool and refreshing). The lighting is well done and is always stays interesting. A complete tour takes about 45 mins, but one can stay much longer thn that to appreciate the museum which harbors many ancient and more recent building tools or household equipments. If you have time, visit the cafe by the pool and you can take wonderful pictures there and look at the many ducks taking a cool bath.

It seems quite remarkable that people 2,500 years ago could have achieved to build something like this (imagine the primitive tools as well as only torches for light...) But then again, we have a lot of impressive buildings and other underground cities (I am reminded of Derinkuyu in Turkey) from this time period in all parts of the world. We should therefore not underestimate human ingenuity and capability and fortunately through restoration of these places we get to appreciate them in our modern world.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts about Kish Island!

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I hope you have already left Iran! Bad news about the spread of coronavirus!!

Lucky you! You got to spend time in these ancient places!

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indeed, I actually have! hope everything is okay in your country as well

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It’s getting worrisome as more people just came back from their holidays in Japan, the hotspot of the spread of virus!

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That is so fasciting, such an extensive structure built so long ago. Whenever I see these structures around the world built by our ancestors, I aways think we are really nothing compared to them, as they had no tools or technology to help them back in those days.

@tipu curate

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