Water and Sand

Water and Sand

Civilizations depend on access to water. Rivers are good but other more complicated systems of accessing water were employed when rivers weren't at hand. Three thousand years ago in present-day Iran, there were qanats, underground tunnels that carried water from higher elevations to lower ones. The Persians of that time (they may have called themselves something else) used the convection from the wells that plumbed the underground tunnels of these qanats to cool their houses. The Inca had elaborate systems for irrigation but these guys weren't and aren't alone. It's best not to underestimate the intellect of one's forbears or, the dictates of water and sand on the longevity of civilizations.

Mohenjo Daro, long since gone, was built near the Indus River, its neighboring sister cities were built astride other rivers that have since disappeared -not the fault of the civilization, just a reality of nature.

Does the choice of a city's main waterway or nearness to a threatening sea, shape the character of the squatting civilization?

In Simon Schama's Embarrassment of Riches, Simon describes a kind of punishment for incarcerated lazy juveniles. A miscreant would be placed on a bicycle-type pump affair in a tall barrel of water. The water was gauged to rise at a constant flow, if the ner-do-well didn't pedal, he drowned. In 17th-century Netherlands, laziness wasn't acceptable. Everyone had to be alert or dykes could fail and the civilization lost to the sea.

Is the persistence of the Nile responsible for the stylistic meme of only drawing humans in 'profile' that endured for millennia? Egyptian religious beliefs were equally persistent but for a slight blip from the Aten family who preferred the sun over Osiris. How much of the belief in Osiris stems from the idiosyncracies of the Nile?

Sand is another natural enemy. How many burgeoning civilizations has the Sahara desert concealed? I can Dubai's Burj Khalifa buried up to its neck in the sand while, its artificial islands sink into the sea.

Water and sand are the creators and destroyers of civilization, both are the built-in enemies of hubris.