The remnants of the ancient drainage systems found in China

Techno 6 December, 2017

2017-12-06 09:27

The remnants of the ancient drainage systems found in China
System built 5100 years ago to prevent the regular floods of the Yangtze and floods that destroyed crops.

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A group of Chinese archaeologists from several institutions have discovered in the East China one of the largest drainage systems of the Ancient World and probably the oldest known, reports Rus.Media.

System built 5100 years ago to prevent the regular floods of the Yangtze and floods that destroyed crops. In the best years the project has served more than 10 thousand hectares of fertile land around the ancient city of Liangzhu.

The excavation lasted four years; the construction of the canal system, according to historians, took considerably more time – three thousands of workers could for eight years to finish only one of the big dams; for this it was necessary to move 300 thousand cubic meters of earth. The builders dug trenches, and from the earth excavated from them, erected a dam between the channels appeared to be the remains of the sluice structures that regulate the flow of water in channels. The result is a network of canals that protected the field from floods and which provided them with water from large reservoirs during a drought. System builders have taken care of the transport channels through which can pass small boats that carried people and cargo.

The town of Liangzhu and drainage system applied to a satellite image.

Excavations of the past years showed that the city Liangzhu was built 5300-4300 years ago, making it a reclamation system, one of the oldest in the world and the first on the territory of modern China. She served only one city and was not part of an integrated programme of urban development in the Empire. Unfortunately, this grandiose construction did not save the region from devastating floods, which occurred 4,200 years ago, the Yangtze overflowed for miles, and covered all around meter layer of clay; the town and the village around it was abandoned forever.