any rate they prove that the borders of the Euphrates were
once thickly inhabited by a people who had made some advances
in the application of hydraulics to purposes of the first necessity.
A similar wheel is used by the Chinese: tubes within it receive
the water, and fans are applied to the rim; the whole is of
bamboo. No doubt the useful but roughly-constructed machines
Persian employed along the Euphrates led to the Persian wheel which
ne^Antioch. is substituted on the lower part of the Orontes.1 The water-
wheels in and near Antioch are solid, and scarcely inferior to
those of Europe. The ordinary diameter is about 33 feet, but
sometimes it is as much as 45 feet; some have a double, and
others a single row of tubes, which, like the earthen buckets of
the Euphrates, fill as they pass through the water; being afterwards
reversed, and discharged at the top of the wheel. But
when the current is not sufficiently powerful, a number of
small fans, made of date branches, are added to the wheel, and
a wooden trough at the top carries the water into an aqueduct
like those on the banks of the Euphrates.
Description of These aqueducts have, as may be supposed, suffered in various
the aqueduct. q e g r e e s during the lapse of so many ages; but owing to the
favourable state of the atmosphere, some, like the buildings in
Egypt, are surprisingly perfect. They are of cut stone, well
jointed and firmly cemented together. The breadth at top is
from 20 inches to 2 feet, and increases towards the base in proportion
to the height, which varies according to circumstances.8
In some places there are two rows of arches to give the requisite
height, and in others, when the distance is shorter, there is
but one.
Particular These arches, which appear to be of Persian, or rather of
uiedi°nfteh Assyrian origin, almost form a triangle, and, being of a very
aqueducts. early age, it may be presumed that they gave rise to the Saracenic,
or pointed curvilinear kind. They were evidently cast
without any kind of centreing, by causing the stones or bricks
gradually to project inwards, till the sides met and were keyed;
and the building, including the conduit, being covered with
durable cement, the effect is particularly striking, although deprived
of columns, pilasters, and other ornaments.
* Plate X X I I . ! Plate L V IL
The preceding is not, however, the only kind, of aqueduct in Subterranean
the east, for subterranean water-courses have been in common water"courees'
use throughout Susiana, Persia, and the rest of the land of
Cush, from the time of Houshung, to whom their invention is
attributed.1 Almost everywhere throughout those regions, this
method of obtaining a supply of running water is familiar to the
people, the mode of construction being handed down from father
to son, as the calling of particular families.
Polybius notices what is now called a kanat, or kahreez, in a Use of the
very particular manner. In describing the campaigns of An- ancient wells
tiochus, he observes, that in these parts ( i. e. beyond Ecbatana)
no water is ever seen above ground, although there are many
subterraneous wells and streams throughout the deserts, which
are known only to the people of the country.2
We know, likewise, that such is the value of water at the adopted by the
present time, that the Persians give to those who bring a stream Persia™'
into a place where none existed previously, the free inheritance
of the ground for five generations; and there can be no doubt
that corresponding privileges were granted, on the like occasions,
in ancient times. Encouraged by such a recompense,
neither labour nor expense was spared to convey the water
through subterraneous channels to places where it was wanted.
At the present time, those who use the waters know neither the
beginning nor the course of the channels through which they
flow.
During the mad expedition of Cambyses, a king of Arabia Canaisofskins
caused a canal to be made of the skins of oxen and other ani- M f c »
mals, sewn together whilst raw: this extended from the rivertwelTe days-
Corys,8 a distance of twelve days’ journey into the arid country,
where it filled the large cisterns which had been constructed to
contain the necessary supply of water for his army. Here, no
doubt, the skins represent the primitive kanat or kahreez, the
formation of which may be due to the original inhabitants of
Arabia.
The extreme dryness of the climate, together with the scarcity Construction
of a kandt.
1 Sir John Malcolm’s History of Persia, vol. I., p. 14.
8 Folard’s Polybius, lib. X., chap. IV.
8 Polybius, lib. I I I ., cap. ix.
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