International History Seminar on Irrigation and Drainage Tehran-Iran May 2-5, 2007 QANAT; IRANIAN’S MOST REMARKABLE ANCIENT IRRIGATION SYSTEM Omid Esfandiari 1 ABSTRACT Modern civilization, as we knew it today, is not the product of the genius of one sole nation. In fact, to achieve what we have today, the legacies and contributions of many nations have played their part. We can, indeed, liken the present civilization to a pot into which almost every nation of the world, whether extinct or alive, has thrown its share. Iran being situated in the middle of the old world before the discovery of the Americas and the growth of Europe was an active member of the world and had to take part in almost every historical and worldwide upheaval or disturbance. It had to shed its intolerance very early in its long history, which is full of glorious periods and disturbed episodes. In this position Iran contributed continuously to the enrichment of civilization, it not only placed its own inventive genius at the disposal of the pot, but gleaned what it could from the East and West, transformed and transmitted it. In the sphere of agriculture, Iran has helped the development of agriculture in two ways; first by controlling the forces of nature and domesticating animals and plants existing in the wild state in the plateau, and secondly by inventing ways and means of procuring water from the places where it could be found and diverting it to the places where it was needed for irrigation; by inventing various agricultural implements, Qanats, water-mills and windmills and storing the wheat, by creating gardens and using manure to restore to the land what had been lost through uninterrupted cultivation. Iranians have devised a number of ingenious methods for preserving and obtaining, where and when it is wanted, enough water to grow sufficient food. Irrigation was considered a good deed in the eyes of Ahura-Mazda in the Avesta, the sacred book of the ancient Persians. The Achaemenids Kings granted exemption from land tax for five generations to any man who made a tract of desert land cultivable through the construction of an irrigation system. 1- M.S., PhD, Society of Iranologists