MALANGBAGH KAREZ

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

The Malang Garden Spring [note 1] is an ancient man-made subterranean irrigation channel (karez) modified by Age, Time & Co. to a degree that makes it appear natural. Already on Sunday, 24th June 1839 GRIFFITH (1847: 338) noticed the heads of the river of Pisheen [note 2] … arise more artificially than naturally from Kahreezes [sic! for: karezes], or wells dug in a rude way, and communicating by subterranean channels; those nearest the natural [sic! for terminal?] outlet of the water being the shallowest… The chief vegetation is Santonica. In the cornfields Fumariaceae, Adonis, Crucifera, Pulmonaria, Arenaria, Hordei sp., Tulipa lutea, and Hyacinthus? may be found. One day in June 1990 visited Brooks (note 3) leading six members of Orpheus Caving Club …150 m of branching streamway, a metre or two wide and up to 10 m high. Used as the water supply of a village [note 4] and to irrigate the nearby Malanbagh / Malan garden (Brooks, S J 1997 Mss: Pakistan Cave Database). SITUATION: Some 15km north of Quetta [note 5], and near to the Airport [note 6]. From the Airport road an unpaved road leads through what appears to be an Afghan refugee settlement to an old walled garden that nestles against the flanks of some low hills. Some 200 m beyond this a deep ravine [note 7] leads to the entrance (Brooks, S J 1997 Mss: Pakistan Cave Database).The Malang Garden Spring [note 1] is an ancient man-made subterranean irrigation channel (karez) modified by Age, Time & Co. to a degree that makes it appear natural. Already on Sunday, 24th June 1839 GRIFFITH (1847: 338) noticed the heads of the river of Pisheen [note 2] … arise more artificially than naturally from Kahreezes [sic! for: karezes], or wells dug in a rude way, and communicating by subterranean channels; those nearest the natural [sic! for terminal?] outlet of the water being the shallowest… The chief vegetation is Santonica. In the cornfields Fumariaceae, Adonis, Crucifera, Pulmonaria, Arenaria, Hordei sp., Tulipa lutea, and Hyacinthus? may be found. One day in June 1990 visited Brooks (note 3) leading six members of Orpheus Caving Club …150 m of branching streamway, a metre or two wide and up to 10 m high. Used as the water supply of a village [note 4] and to irrigate the nearby Malanbagh / Malan garden (Brooks, S J 1997 Mss: Pakistan Cave Database). SITUATION: Some 15km north of Quetta [note 5], and near to the Airport [note 6]. From the Airport road an unpaved road leads through what appears to be an Afghan refugee settlement to an old walled garden that nestles against the flanks of some low hills. Some 200 m beyond this a deep ravine [note 7] leads to the entrance (Brooks, S J 1997 Mss: Pakistan Cave Database).