Canal

A canal is an artificial waterway used for irrigation, drainage or navigation, in which water is in contact with the atmosphere (Bonnin 1984). In ancient Arabia, due to the absence of permanent watercourses, canals were mainly used for the irrigation of agricultural land.

They were either dug in the ground or raised above ground and surrounded by levees made of earth and/or stone. A distinction is made between primary, secondary and tertiary canals. The former is used to transport water from a water source or water intake, e.g., a dam outlet or a diversion wall, to secondary canals, which in turn supply specific parts of the irrigation systems. Each tertiary canal then conveys water to a single plot of land. The flow is regulated by water distributors, equipped or not with sluices.

Such ancient irrigation systems fossilised in the landscape are particularly visible in the lower valleys of Yemen (Gentelle 1991, 1998). In Southeast Arabia, the exceptionally well-preserved network of canals fed by a falaj from the Iron Age excavated in Al-Madam is another example (del Cerro & Córdoba 2018: 93–96). One of the very few examples of rock-cut canals in Northwest Arabia was found in the city of Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ (Fig. 1) (Dentzer 2008). The palaeo-environmental study of the canal fillings highlights the human-environment relationship (Purdue 2015).

See also Water Management

Julien Charbonnier

References and suggested readings

• Bonnin, J. 1984. L’eau dans L’antiquité. L’hydraulique avant notre ère. Paris: Éditions Eyrolles.
• Del Cerro, C. & J.M. Córdoba. 2018. Archaeology of a falaj in al Madam Plain (Sharjah, UAE), a study from the site. Water History 10(1): 85–98. DOI: 10.1007/s12685-018-0210-0.
• Dentzer, J.-M. 2008. Les Nabatéens et l’eau : technologie et culture. La conduite d’eau du Jebel Ithlib à Medaïn Saleh (Arabie Saoudite). Syria 85: 5–17. DOI: 10.4000/syria.442.
• Gentelle, P. 1991. Les irrigations antiques à Shabwa. Syria 68: 5–54. DOI: 10.3406/syria.1991.7261.
• Gentelle, P. 1998. La nature de l’irrigation, in Breton J.-F. et al. (eds) Une vallée aride du Yémen antique : le wādī Bayhān: 75–126. Paris: ADPF, ERC.
• Purdue, L. 2015. Construction, maintenance and abandonment of hydraulic systems: hydroclimatic or social constraints? A case study of prehistoric Hohokam irrigation systems (Phoenix, Arizona, USA). Water History 7(1): 73–99. DOI: 10.1007/s12685-014-0121-7.

_{Alternate spellings: Waterway, Channel, Conduit, Duct, Watercourse}