Azizan

Qanat facts for kids, with the Persian water words

A qanat is a tunnel under the ground that carries water from the foot of the mountains down to villages and fields. It needs no pump: the tunnel slopes gently downhill, so the water simply flows. From above you see a long line of round holes, the tops of wells dug down to the tunnel. People in Iran have been building qanats for a very long time, probably about 2,500 to 3,000 years, and the people who dig them are called muqanni. In 2016 UNESCO listed eleven of Iran's qanats together as a World Heritage site, The Persian Qanat. In Persian a qanat is ghanaat (قنات), also called kaariz. Below are the facts in simple words, an easy experiment to try at home, and the Persian words. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated Persian children's stories page by page. This page is a free guide for parents raising Persian-speaking children abroad, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.

Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.

What is a qanat?

Imagine you live in a hot, dry place, far from any river. Up in the mountains there is water, hidden under the ground. How do you bring it to your village? People in Iran found a clever answer long ago: the qanat.

A qanat is a long tunnel dug under the ground. It starts at the foot of the mountains, where there is water deep under the earth, and runs all the way to a village or to fields. The tunnel slopes downhill very gently, just a tiny bit, so the water flows along it by itself. No pump, no machine. Some qanats are many kilometres long.

The mother well and the line of wells

A qanat begins with one very deep well called the mother well, dug down until it reaches the water under the ground. From there the tunnel runs gently downhill towards the village.

Along the way, the diggers make more wells, one after another, straight down to the tunnel. They use them to lift out the earth they dig, and to let fresh air in. From an airplane, a qanat looks like a long line of round holes across the desert, like dots on a page. In Persian these wells are called mileh.

Who digs a qanat? The muqanni

The people who dig and look after qanats are called muqanni. It is hard, careful work. A muqanni has to know where the water is under the ground and how to make the tunnel slope just right: too steep, and the water rushes and damages the tunnel; too flat, and the water hardly moves.

This know-how has been passed down for hundreds of years, from older diggers to younger ones.

How old are qanats?

Qanats are very, very old. People in Iran have probably been building them for about 2,500 to 3,000 years. No one knows the exact year the first one was dug, and experts still talk about where the idea began, but many think it began in Iran.

What everyone agrees on is this: some qanats are still carrying water today, after hundreds of years.

A World Heritage treasure

In 2016, UNESCO, which looks after special places around the world, put eleven of Iran's qanats on its World Heritage list, all together under one name: The Persian Qanat. Iran has many thousands of qanats, and these eleven were chosen to show the whole story.

One of them is the qanat of Gonabad, in the east of Iran. It is famous for being very deep. One of its wells goes down about 300 metres, about as deep as a building with a hundred floors is tall. It is also very old, though experts do not agree on exactly how old.

Cool water in hot summers

In some old Iranian towns, water from a qanat was led into a big covered tank called an ab-anbar, which means "water store". The tank was built below the ground, with very thick walls and often a dome on top, so the water inside stayed cool all through the hot summer.

Qanats around the world

Qanats are not only in Iran. People have built them in Afghanistan, Oman, China, parts of North Africa such as Algeria and Morocco, and Spain, and in other dry places too. They have different names in different places: kariz or karez, falaj in Oman, foggara in the Sahara.

Today many old qanats need care. Their tunnels have to be cleaned and mended, and fewer people are learning to be a muqanni, so in many places people are working to look after them.

Try it at home: water runs downhill

You can see how a qanat works with a grown-up, outside or over a sink or a tray. Take a clear plastic tube or a long plastic bottle that a grown-up has cut in half lengthwise, and hold it so one end is just a little higher than the other. Pour a cup of water in at the high end and watch it run all the way down to the low end, by itself.

Or fill a tray with damp sand, make one end higher with a book, and draw a little groove from the top to the bottom with your finger. Pour water in at the top. Try a very gentle slope and then a steeper one, and see how the water moves faster on the steep one. A muqanni has to choose the slope just right.

Water words in Persian

For mountains, trees and the seasons, see Seasons and nature in Persian for kids, and for rain, clouds and sun, see Sky and weather words in Persian for kids.

For parents: qanats at home

If your family comes from Yazd, Kerman, Kashan or Khorasan, there may be a qanat story in it. Ask a grandparent whether their town had a qanat, whether they ever drank its water, or whether there was an ab-anbar in the neighbourhood. Do the downhill-water experiment together and say the words as you go: aab, chaah, kooh, zir-e zamin.

A grandmother far away can be part of it too: she can record a story on Azizan, reading it page by page in her own voice, and the child can watch it and then ask her about the water of her childhood. For more facts pages in the same style, see Caspian Sea facts for kids, Saffron facts for kids and Pomegranate facts for kids.

Related guides

• Caspian Sea facts for kids
• Seasons and nature in Persian for kids
• Sky and weather words in Persian for kids

Questions

What is a qanat?

A qanat is a tunnel under the ground that carries water from the foot of the mountains to villages and fields. It slopes gently downhill, so the water flows by itself with no pump. A line of wells from the surface down to the tunnel shows where it runs.

How old are qanats?

Very old. People in Iran have probably been building them for about 2,500 to 3,000 years. No one knows the exact date of the first one, and experts still discuss where the idea began, but many think it was Iran.

Who digs a qanat?

Skilled diggers called muqanni (مقنی in Persian). They find the water under the ground, dig the mother well and the line of wells, and make the tunnel slope just right. The know-how has been passed down for hundreds of years.

Are qanats a UNESCO World Heritage site?

Yes. In 2016 UNESCO listed eleven Iranian qanats together as The Persian Qanat. One of them is the qanat of Gonabad, which has a well about 300 metres deep.

Are there qanats outside Iran?

Yes, in Afghanistan, Oman, China, parts of North Africa such as Algeria and Morocco, Spain and other dry places. They have other names there, such as kariz, falaj and foggara.

What is qanat in Persian?

Qanat is ghanaat (قنات), also called kaariz (کاریز). Water is aab (آب), well is chaah (چاه), mountain is kooh (کوه), under the ground is zir-e zamin (زیرِ زمین) and the qanat digger is moghanni (مقنی).

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Updated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard

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