"It is said that a long, long time ago, a shepherd named Kurban drove his flock to the Turpan area to graze.

At that time, the shepherd was looking for a place with abundant water and grass in the wind and sand, and he searched and searched, and finally found a depression with green grass, but the depression was too small to meet the needs of the sheep, so Kurbanyou began to look for new pastures, and finally found a few depressions.

These depressions are not large, the same as the previous ones, but they are overgrown with green pastures, and Kurban wanted to dig a small river to connect all the depressions, and the grass will grow more and more luxuriantly, and it will become an ideal pasture.

So he began to use a shovel to look for water in the depression, and when he dug more than two lengths deep, the water gushed out of the ground, and he took a sip, and the water was cold and sweet, and it could be said to be life-saving water.

However, several depressions are far apart, how can the water be communicated?

He began to dig the ditch, but after only ten zhang of dug, the strong sun shone in the ditch at noon, the water was evaporated, and the wind blew the yellow sand, and the ditch was filled in again, so Kurban simply began to dig the culvert underneath, so that he was no longer afraid of the sun and the sand.

But in order to know where the culvert had been dug, he dug another hole into the ground every other distance, and after dozens of days of hard work, he connected several depressions, counted them, and there were dozens of wellheads exposed on the ground.

It is said that this is the first qanats in Turpan, so everyone should be able to understand what qanats are.

Regarding the legend I just mentioned, you can refer to page 33 of the "Xinjiang Comprehensive Practice Activity Book for the Third Grade of Primary School", haha. ”

However, Zhang Yang looked at the sand table in front of him that simulated the principle of the water conservancy project, and said the three most important people for the water conservancy project, but the third person he said raised doubts.

"No, as far as I know, didn't UNESCO include Iran's qanats on the World Heritage List?

"So this water conservancy project was only promoted during the Qing Dynasty?"

"But isn't this just an irrigation facility? How can it be compared to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Great Wall?

"I just looked it up on the Internet, and it seems that this qanats are also available in Persia. ”

Zhang Yang naturally knew about these situations, so when he was explaining just now, he didn't even say that Kurban was the inventor, but only said that the first qanats on this side of Turpan were dug by that Kurban.

In fact, who is the earliest inventor and which country came up with it first? That's what those historians need to study, he is just a tourist anchor, not a study of history, just need to tell fans about it.

"That's right, Persia, Iran and our country all have similar qanats facilities, and we won't go into more detail about the other two countries, or when we have the opportunity to go abroad in the future, I'll talk about our country first.

You can first understand the structure of the qanats, which are roughly composed of four parts: a shaft dug downward, an underground horizontal channel, a surface channel and a small reservoir.

Song Shenghongzhi of the Southern Dynasty recorded in the "Jingzhou Chronicle": There is a strong village in the north of Sui County, and there is a heavy mountain in the south of the village, and there is a hole under the mountain.

According to the legend of the fathers, there are two moats in the west of Linxi, which are born by the dragon, and there are two acres of land around it, and there are nine wells, Shennong is both bred and nine wells are self-wearing.

And the clouds, draw a well then the wells of the water move, that is, this is the Shennong Society, the annual shrine.

Nine wells are connected by self-penetration, a well leads to the wells, the passage I just said is actually a kind of facility similar to the qanats, and the underground culvert is connected with the same structure of the qanats, Shennong is a legendary figure of China's agricultural and medical inventions, and the wells are connected with him, which shows that it has a long history.

Sima Qian also said in the "Records of the Five Emperors": 瞽叟 (gǔsǒu) also made Shun penetrate the well, and Shun pierced the well to hide the void and go out, Shun entered the depth, and the elephant went down to the earth and solid well, and Shun went out from the hidden air.

When Shun penetrated the well, he dug a 'hidden hollow' from the side, that is, the tunnel, which is extremely similar to the excavation method of the qanaqat, if: 'hidden empty' is a horizontal tunnel, it is the qanaq, this record is more than 1,000 years earlier than the legend that Persia has a well.

As for why I say that the qanats are comparable to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Great Wall, although this view has not been recognized by most people, and some people have not even heard of it, we have to say that the qanats are also a miraculous water conservancy project.

To understand this, we need to understand the working principle of the qanats, you can take a look at the sand table in front of us, that is, the groundwater formed by the melting of ice and snow on the Tianshan Mountains in the distance is diverted into the Turpan Basin for agricultural irrigation.

Because the Tianshan Mountains block the air with moisture in the north, the northern part of the Turpan Basin has become a flaming mountain, and there is not much water in the basin, so if there is no qanat, the Turpan Basin is not suitable for survival at all, let alone so prosperous.

According to the statistics of 1962, there are more than 1,700 qanats in Xinjiang, with a total flow of about 26 cubic meters per second and an irrigation area of about 500,000 mu.

Most of them are distributed in the Turpan and Hami basins, such as the Turpan basin has more than 1,100 qanats, with a total flow of 18 cubic meters per second, and an irrigation area of 470,000 mu, accounting for 67% of the total cultivated land area of 700,000 mu in the basin, which is of great significance for the development of local agricultural production and meeting the needs of residents.

According to my understanding, as long as it is a project that is beneficial to the people, and it is indeed extremely difficult to build here, after all, this is a water conservancy project that appeared on the extremely arid Gobi Desert and even through the Flaming Mountain, then I think it deserves the title of the third largest project in our country. ”

In front of the sand table, Zhang Yang stood for about 10 minutes, and as he said a lot of things here, it also aroused the approval of some tourists around him who also came to visit.

As soon as the words fell, a burst of 'pop' applause sounded next to him, Zhang Yang, who was immersed in the explanation just now, was attracted by this burst of applause, and turned his head to find that more than ten tourists were attracted to him unconsciously.

Among them, there were men and women, old and young, and a few old men looked at him with admiration and said.

"Young man, what you said is very good, old man, I feel that this trip is worth it, yes, as long as it is a project that is beneficial to the people, then he deserves our praise so much, and even deified it. ”

"Yes, this is the snow water of the Tianshan Mountains that has affected this basin through the Flame Mountain, I have to say that it is a great project, Lin Zexu and Zuo Zongtang can really be said to have made a great contribution to the people here, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the grace of life, I remember that I saw their statues when I came over just now!"

How did the old men say this, combined with the wave explained by Zhang Yang before, a few young tourists were a little suddenly enlightened.

"I said, why is there a statue of Lin Zexu and Zuo Zongtang in the museum here in Turpan, it turned out to commemorate them, I have seen it for a long time!"

"Hey, are you the tourist anchor Zhang Yang? I said, a man and a woman and a drone, if you add a monkey and a dog, this combination is too familiar, I just saw the news this morning, did you help the people from the relevant departments here to defeat a trafficker gang yesterday?"

"Ah?!! it turned out to be him, this morning's news is almost on the screen, I didn't expect us to see a hero here, haha!"

"Oh, there is such a thing, then this young man is really good, he knows how to speak well, and he is brave in righteousness, this is a rare talent in this society now!"