The Babylonians and their neighbors the Persians lived in the desert Living in the desert makes it hard to find water The Babylonians and Persians built tunnels to solve this problem These tunnels were called qanat or kareez They carried water underground bringing it from faraway rivers and lakes to the desert where people lived One of these tunnels carried fresh water from the Euphrates River to the royal palace through a 2,953 foot 900 meter long tunnel that was lined with bricks Brain Builder Babylon was a city in ancient Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq Persia is now known as Iran Experts think there are hundreds maybe thousands of big tunnels in Iran Turkey Syria Jordan Iraq Babylon Iran 6 Kuwait Persian Gulf
Gonabad The city of Gonabad Iran still uses a network of qanat tunnels that is more than 2,700 years old The qanats provide water to more than 40,000 people and also irrigates farmland This qanat is similar to those found in Gonabad Iran Like the Gonabad qanats this tunnel was used to transport water for drinking and agriculture 7
The ancient Greeks and Romans were also great tunnel builders The Romans built more tunnels than any other ancient culture Most of these tunnels were used to carry water from mountain streams down to the cities and villages The Romans built this aqueduct a tunnel designed to carry water between ancient reservoirs known as Solomon's Pools and the city of Jerusalem sometime between 100 BCE and 30 BCE In 36 BCE the Romans built a tunnel in Italy between Naples and Pozzuoli that was 4,800 feet 1,463 meters long 25 feet 7 6 meters wide and 30 feet 9 meters high The tunnel was wide enough that two carts could pass each other inside it This tunnel was dug through a hill It was used until the 1800s when more modern tunnels were built to replace it The tunnel built by ancient Romans between Naples and Puzzuoli was used for almost 2,000 years 8
