The Great Silk Road, linking China and the cities of Central Asia with the Mediterranean countries, has played a major role in the processes of commodity and cultural exchange between these regions for many centuries. Originating in the II century BC as a trade route between China and the cities of the Fergana Valley, it later acquired the status of the most important transport artery between East and West and existed until the Middle Ages.
A significant part of the Great Silk Road ran through the desert territories of Asia. For the transport of valuable goods, traders used mainly camels, which were perfectly adapted to moving on the hot sands.
The most important problem faced by travelers is the lack of water on most of the route. And in order to prevent the camels from carrying containers with water, which took up useful space and reduced the volume of the transported cargo, ingenious designers of antiquity built wells in the middle of the hot sands. They were called "sardoba" and they always had water in them. Such wells can be found today in some cities of Central Asia.
Unique engineering structures were located every 12-15 kilometers of the way and could water a caravan of 150-200 camels. Water was accumulated in these wells not due to the presence of underground water sources, but with the help of an original design capable of receiving water from the atmospheric air.
It seems incredible, but ancient engineers used the vortex effect to build wells. The structure itself looked like a small tent, made of stone, and had several holes. More than half of the well was submerged in the ground, and to get to the water, you had to go down the stairs. Thanks to the special roof structure and side openings, desert air constantly circulated through the well, the volume of which, according to experts, reached several thousand cubic meters per day.
Even the hot desert air contains water vapor. The idea of an ingenious construction is based on this knowledge. Getting inside the well, where, according to the recollections of Arab travelers, it was always cool, the hot air cooled down and gave the water in it in the form of drops. The purest cool water flowed down a stone mound into a special depression at the bottom of the well, from where people took it to get drunk and water the camels.
Unfortunately, there is no precise evidence of who these ancient builders were. But researchers believe they were Chinese engineers. After all, the Great Silk Road played a crucial role in the Chinese economy, and the country's leadership made a lot of efforts for its prosperity.
Olga Frolova
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