
India's Forgotten Stepwells - juanplusjuan
http://www.archdaily.com/395363/india-s-forgotten-stepwells
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qCOVET
Thanks op for the link .. great pictures!

India's historical legacy is absolutely breath taking. From the beautiful
palaces in Jaipur, to the ultimate gift of Love in Agra, India's rich heritage
tells stories of architectural break throughs, scientific explorations,
mathematical discoveries and heart wrenching sagas of love.

I used to live in India in early 1990s and I can't wait to go back and visit
this beautiful land of kind and generous people, where Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and
Christians are united by the fabric of 'Jai Hind' and where the whole nation
comes to a stand still when a game of cricket is being played...lol

When I look at these architectural gems, I wonder how it might have been when
it was busy with life. I am sure these structures served as focal points of
communities and unfortunately now lie in absolute ruins of dilapidation and
neglect.

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roel_v
Any construction engineers here? How would one go about building something
like this? Do you have to dig a hole big enough to build the whole thing in,
then re-fill the sides with sand? Is it possible to gradually go deeper, i.e.
build a level _under_ an existing level, or do you have to wait for the dry
season and then rush to get it completed before the lowest levels are flooded
come the next wet season? That seems impossible, given the size of some of
these things.

I'm wondering because I'd like to build a wine cellar similar in concept to
these things (a spiraling staircase with an entrance from above only), but I
want to get some insight into building methods before inviting contractors.
(for anyone who like underground structures, see www.spiralcellars.co.uk ).

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theoh
Not a construction engineer but an architectural historian. Reading between
the lines of descriptions of these wells, I'd say they started as a narrow
shaft (traditional "well" shape) which was progressively excavated and widened
to create the setback steps. I am 90% sure they didn't dig a huge cuboid hole
down to the water table, build the structure inside and then backfill.

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roel_v
Yeah some of them look like this (the conical ones), but the huge ones in the
pictures with the many stories seem to be 'square' temple-like. I'd imagine
that building those pillars with 'decks' between each layers isn't something
you can gradually add. Intriguing.

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theoh
Adalaj, for example, is not as purely vertical as you might think. Google
"adalaj section" for drawings.

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roel_v
Ah yes from the cross sections it seems much more viable that they dug the
first layer, build the sides, then dug a slightly smaller hole, and so on.

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Turing_Machine
Nice architecture, but man, those things must've been a public health
nightmare. Anything that got tracked in on anyone's feet when the water was
low would have eventually have wound up in the water supply when the level
increased.

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arihant
Wells, in general, are a public health nightmare in India. Most of India,
except a few states, has heavy quantities of fluoride in the soil.

Ground water is not portable and drinkable because of this. India has suffered
numerous episodes of widespread fluorosis. Removal of fluoride to normal
levels is one of the major expenditures of water works.

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VOOdoo2U
Hello all - I'm Victoria, the author of this 3-year old stepwell story, but
the one on ThisIsColossal last week went viral and spawned all his miraculous
hoopla. Barely anyone even read that article and I couldn't get anything
published, anywhere, until last week.

I've been working in total obscurity for years, so please, if anyone wants to
know more or I can answer questions, I'm so happy to. Though honestly, there a
whole bunch I don't know, and no-one does.

If I'm using your site incorrectly, forgive this poor newb. My crazed-geek-
genius-artist-brother frequents it and is impressed by me, finally. Btw if
you're interested (since I owe him) here's his most recent Kickstarter
campaign:

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/780943604/fizzbuzz?ref=...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/780943604/fizzbuzz?ref=project_link)

Thank you so very much for your interest -

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akshayB
I have visited many of the places mentioned in the article. In terms of
architecture they are beautiful but now all the places are in bad shape. The
government and local population make no interest in saving the history.

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sksk
They are very beautiful when dry. However, navigating these steps when there
is water is not easy -- they get very slippery when the water level goes down
but algae is still present in the supposedly drier steps. A cylindrical design
where the steps go around the well with sealable openings may provide similar
benefit with little maintenance overhead.

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Camillo
They may have been forgotten by tourism, but not by videogame level design.

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MrJagil
Is that a joke or do you have any examples? Links would be great.

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dspillett
Tomb Raider is something that popped up in my mind looking at some of those
pictures. Monument Valley that has already been mentioned too if you like a
bit of Escher in your puzzle design.

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mirimir
OK, so a hole with steps is _great_ when numerous people must walk down to the
water level. But keeping junk out, while letting people in, is a hard problem.
As historic places, they of course ought to be maintained. But today, deep
cisterns with pumps make much more sense. Or maybe better, groundwater
recharge, because you get natural filtration.

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arihant
When I visited one of these in Agra last Fall, I assumed it to be either a
bath or an aquarium to keep exotic animals. Some had so many tiny windows and
grills, I thought they might be designed to use as laundry places. It's
interesting that all of these were simply wells.

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lpgauth
How timely! I'm currently visiting India and noticed some stairs to nowhere
yesterday. That's most likely what is was :)

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ngoel36
I took some friends on a sightseeing tour of the country last Fall - one of
the most memorable sights was Chand Baori (Abhaneri), about 2/3 of the way
between Agra and Jaipur. The place was absolutely stunning, and it had maybe 3
visitors in the two hours while we were there.

It can only be stopped at if traveling by car, and while it's a tad more
treacherous than plane/train, it's the only way I'll travel between the two
cities if I have the time. You'll get to experience some amazing scenery along
the way, and it cost no more than $100 for the journey in a large A/C car!

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shabinesh
Thanks OP! I was at the Adalaj step well in Gujarat couple of months back, Its
amazing to see these structure's usefulness to the common people and beautiful
carvings. Inside the step well the temperature is very cool like an AC despite
the burning ~43 deg Celsius outside.

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arcb
Que Dark Knight Rises references :)

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_nedR
You are being downvoted to hell, but you have my thanks for pointing that out.
According to [http://whenonearth.net/walk-the-3500-narrow-steps-of-
chand-b...](http://whenonearth.net/walk-the-3500-narrow-steps-of-chand-baori/)
( amazing pictures) the Chand Baori was used as a shooting location in The
Fall, The Dark Knight Rises and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

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xenadu02
Yeah this is great... In 1700 India had a population ~127 million people. In
1200 it was certainly much Lowe than that. Is the claim that this ancient
technology would solve all of India's water problems for 1+ billion people?

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jsudhams
Yes, but any amout on water saving before it goes to ocean will help us. I am
not seeing any less rain (observation) but definitely the ponds and lakes in
villages and city like bangalure has come down to about 1/4th now

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cubancigar11
Yes absolutely. Chennai used to be called a city of lakes, and now even
Pallikaranai[1] is seeing disastrous development.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallikaranai_wetland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallikaranai_wetland)

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jsudhams
Chennai is a classic dead case. That city could have been maintained like
London with water ways and road ways. Now they completely forgot about even
tap water. Based on Thirukkural[1] if there was one thing that king/ruler
should do that would be providing water to citizens free. It is very sad.

[1]
[http://www.gokulnath.com/thirukuralsections](http://www.gokulnath.com/thirukuralsections)

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cubancigar11
The old water ways built by British have turned into dumpyards over which poor
people have built bridges of wooden planks and they live their. Mismanagement
of resources at its finest.

