You can often see astonishingly beautiful photographs of agricultural terraces in Southeast Asia online. But agricultural terraces in the Caucasus and Dagestan are practically unknown. Their scale, the volume of work performed once is no less than in any mountainous province of China or Vietnam. I propose to lift the veil of obscurity over this topic, or vice versa, add new questions.
Not so long ago, one of the like-minded people sent a video where the author showed terraces on the territory of Dagestan in google maps:
In satellite images, the entire scale and scope of the work once performed is clearly visible. I also got into these map services and was just as amazed at these places:
2. A complex of terraces near the village of Zubanchi, Dakhadayevsky district.
3. North of Zubanchi, part of the terraces is still used.
4. Terraces near the village of Kishcha also continue to be used. The scale is impressive.
Promotional video:
A few more places with pictures from the height of this territory:
In Google maps - autumn pictures. And the terraces are seen more clearly:
There is no doubt that these are terraces, moreover, in the photographs from these places it looks like this:
Kudala "pyramids".
When was it done?
They write that there was a Soviet period of cultivation and creation of terraces.
But I don't think that technicians - bulldozers - could have climbed absolutely all mountains. Moreover, when you study the maps of these territories, you can see terraces with very strong erosion. They are clearly not 50-70 years old.
And photos where the abandoned terraces look very ancient:
There are ruins in which no one has lived for a long time.
There are a lot of descriptions of travelers, figures and scientists of the 19th century who once visited Dagestan and admired the pictures of terraced farming they saw:
How were they watered?
According to descriptions, the terraces were irrigated from mountain rivers through a system of dams, canals and aqueducts that even extend over gorges. Often the water was carried out in the body of the mountain, cutting through tunnels for hundreds of meters. It's all in decline now.
Having estimated all this volume of ground work, which was spent in the construction of terraces in Dagestan, the question arises: how many people lived in these areas, what would be the way to equip the mountain slopes? If not a lot, then the work could take decades.
It is sad that all this is now not in demand, probably by 10% and even unknown. Although, as before, they could grow grapes and other crops.
No wonder these terraces were called the eighth wonder of the world, apparently in the past they made a great impression on the scale of human activity, which turned the mountain slopes into blooming gardens and fields.