qanat

• kanat, qanāt

From Persian قنات‎ (qanât), from Arabic قَنَاة‎ (qanāh).

qanat (plural qanats)

1. An underground conduit, between vertical shafts, that leads water from the interior of a hill to villages in the valley
   • 1981, Richard Edward Chapman, Geology and Water: An Introduction to Fluid Mechanics for Geologists, page 112:

     Shafts are dug to the required level along the planned route of the qanat, every 300 m or so […] .

   • 1988, Keith Stanley McLachlan, The Neglected Garden: The Politics and Ecology of Agriculture in Iran:

     Elsewhere over large areas of the plateau and the foothill regions, the qanat irrigation cultures were weakened considerably.

   • 2019, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Arabs, Yale University Press, page 127:

     Its gardens are watered by rivers that invariably flow underground, like the subterranean qanats developed by the Persians.

• foggara
• karez

• For a schematic of a qanat, refer to Geology and Water: An Introduction to Fluid Mechanics for Geologists, by Richard Edward Chapman, 1981, page 112.

qanat

1. wing