Brief information on Karez Well  

The Karez well - “Karez” means well - is a unique underground water system invented and built by ancient farmers from the various ethnic minorities of Turpan. The construction was made to adapt to the natural basin of the region while taking into account solar radiation and the atmosphere of this dry region. This irrigation system with its wells connected by underground channels is considered to be one of the three great ancient projects in China. In Xinjiang, the Karez wells are mostly located in Turpan, Hami and Mori and there is a large number of wells in Turpan Basin. The existing Karez wells were mostly built in the Qing Dynasty and millions of hectares of fields are still watered by them today. At present, the Wudaolin Karez Well and the Wuxingxiang Karez Well are opened to visitors.

Karez wells have a very low evaporation rate, a stable water supply, and are capable of watering farmland all year round. These qualities reveal the wisdom of those ancient farmers.

The Karez well system consists of four parts: perpendicular wells, subterranean channels, aboveground channels and small pools. A well was built by first identifying an available underground water source, then digging out upright wells above the water source at a certain distance from each other, and lastly, linkin the bottoms of the wells by underground channels so that the water flows from a higher well to another lower one.

There are altogether 1100-odd Karez wells and the channels have a total length of over 5000 kilometers in Turpan alone. Each of the well channels have different lengths: the longest can reach 20 kilometers while the shortest is only about 100 meters. The oldest Karez well is the Tuer Karez Well located in Zhuangzi village, Qiateka town, Turpan city, which has been used for over 470 years. It has a length of 3.5 kilometers and the daily water-injection rate can reach 20 m3. The most famous Karez well should be the Miyimu Aji Karez Well which is 5 kilometers long and has a depth of 80 meters. The daily water-injection rate of the Miyimu Aji Karez Well, which has been used for over 200 years, is 70 m3.
 
Karez wells not only provide water for farmland but also offer the clean water for local people to drink.

*You can download the bilingual note to show it to a taxi driver or someone else to find your way to Karez Well if you plan to visit Karez Well and have language problems.

   

Adress: Turpan, Xinjiang