KAREZ ANCIENT WATER CHANNELS AS THE CHARACTERISTIC ELEMENTS OF UYGHUR-TURFAN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
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Tarih
2022
Yazarlar
Dergi Başlığı
Dergi ISSN
Cilt Başlığı
Yayıncı
Parlar Scientific Publications (P S P)
Erişim Hakkı
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
Özet
With the settled life of humans, agricultural activities have increased, and agricultural practices and techniques have developed accordingly. Turfan Karezes are among other important ancient structures such as the Great Wall of China and the Beijing - Hangzhou Canal in terms of their historical back-ground, uniqueness of their structure, the number and length of their channels,, and agriculture Karez water channels play a decisive role in agricultural production in the region. In addition, they are also very important in terms of reflecting the cultural landscape of Uyghur Turks in East Turkistan which is also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, lies in the very heart of Asia. In this paper, taking into account the natural and cultural landscape characteristics of the Turfan Basin, the structure of Kareze water wells and channels, their development process from the past to the present, and their interaction with natural landscape are studied based on the literature review. The existing studies shows that the civilization and rich agricultural activies became possible with ingenous Karezes water wells and channels at Turfan Basin creating unique cultural and natural landscape character in comparison to other karezes types with different or similar names seen in other surrounding locations. Although, considerable literature and evidences exist to declare that the Uyghur Karezes are the oldest water system in the world, still some literature discusses the need for advanced studies to ascertaize it. The undisputed consensus about the Uyghur Karezes is that although they are ancient structures, their design and construction techniques indicate that there is a high technology and knowledge behind them, and therefore they have a heritage value for humanity. As a results of this study, recommendations are made on the protection of Karez water wells and channels to be able to transfer their characteristic cultural landscape and heritage value to the future generations.
Açıklama
Anahtar Kelimeler
Karez Water Channels; Uyghur; Turfan; Heritage; Cultural Landscape
Kaynak
Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
WoS Q Değeri
N/A
Scopus Q Değeri
Cilt
31
Sayı
12
