Qanât in the Palermo plain

The subterranean layer of the plain and town of Palermo is characterised by the presence of galleries which capture water from the water table and which due to a slight slope, transport it by gravity to the surface, thus creating artificial springs, Along the galleries journey, access to the water is possible via wells which are located at a regular distance from one another and were used during the excavation to extract dug out material and serve as ventilation. The model of this system was developed and spread within the ancient Persian Empire. In northern Africa, the oldest examples precede the Islamic period (the hydric system of the Kharga oasis in Egypt dates from between the fifth and third centuries B.C., while the Libyan Fezzan one dates from between the first and fifth centuries A.D., etc.). In Sicily, in Syracuse and Agrigento, there is also evidence of conduits with the same model and dating from the Classical period. However, this type of work, called qanât, became widespread in the Islamic area during the Middle Ages. We still find them today in Iran and Central Asia.

Qanâts enable a constant water flow which runs from one well to the other until it surfaces and can be used. Furthermore, these long underground conduits keep the water fresh, protect it from pollution and limit its evaporation.

In the Palermo plain, the rediscovery of qanâts is quite recent and their systematic study is made complex by the difficulties of access and exploration of many of their parts. Outside the town, qanâts are located in three areas: one at the north of the city, one at the west (where two qanâts are still used for irrigation) and one at the south. In addition, in the historical centre of Palermo, the path of another network has been rebuilt; it starts from the Papireto area and divides towards the quarters situated behind the ancient port of la Cala. The qanâts were therefore used both for the irrigation of agricultural lands which surrounded the city and for the water provisioning of certain urban zones.

The Palermo qanâts generally develop over a kilometre approximately, but they may be as long as 2 km. The galleries are of variable dimensions (for example the Gesuitico Basso qanât  is of an average width of 0.80 m and its height varies between 1.50 m and several metres). The sources which fed these qanâts is made up of draining galleries transverse to the flow of the water table; in the Iranian qanâts however the flow came from a large draining well.

The dating of these Palermo qanâts is not easy. The oldest evidence of which the date can be ascertained are from the Norman period. Thus, we can date the integrated system of the palace – irrigation network of Uscibene (to the west of the town) which fed the fountain chamber and a fishpond, in the twelfth century. However, the latest circulation of the qanât seems to date from the sixteenth century (the Gesuitico Alto qanât was built at the beginning of this century). But still at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a particularly productive qanât was built in the Palermo plain at Cruillas.