India's Forgotten Stepwells

Thanks op for the link .. great pictures!<p>India&#x27;s historical legacy is absolutely breath taking. From the beautiful palaces in Jaipur, to the ultimate gift of Love in Agra, India&#x27;s rich heritage tells stories of architectural break throughs, scientific explorations, mathematical discoveries and heart wrenching sagas of love.<p>I used to live in India in early 1990s and I can&#x27;t wait to go back and visit this beautiful land of kind and generous people, where Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christians are united by the fabric of &#x27;Jai Hind&#x27; and where the whole nation comes to a stand still when a game of cricket is being played...lol<p>When I look at these architectural gems, I wonder how it might have been when it was busy with life. I am sure these structures served as focal points of communities and unfortunately now lie in absolute ruins of dilapidation and neglect.

Any construction engineers here? How would one go about building something like this? Do you have to dig a hole big enough to build the whole thing in, then re-fill the sides with sand? Is it possible to gradually go deeper, i.e. build a level <i>under</i> an existing level, or do you have to wait for the dry season and then rush to get it completed before the lowest levels are flooded come the next wet season? That seems impossible, given the size of some of these things.<p>I&#x27;m wondering because I&#x27;d like to build a wine cellar similar in concept to these things (a spiraling staircase with an entrance from above only), but I want to get some insight into building methods before inviting contractors. (for anyone who like underground structures, see www.spiralcellars.co.uk ).

Nice architecture, but man, those things must&#x27;ve been a public health nightmare. Anything that got tracked in on anyone&#x27;s feet when the water was low would have eventually have wound up in the water supply when the level increased.

Hello all - I&#x27;m Victoria, the author of this 3-year old stepwell story, but the one on ThisIsColossal last week went viral and spawned all his miraculous hoopla. Barely anyone even read that article and I couldn&#x27;t get anything published, anywhere, until last week.<p>I&#x27;ve been working in total obscurity for years, so please, if anyone wants to know more or I can answer questions, I&#x27;m so happy to. Though honestly, there a whole bunch I don&#x27;t know, and no-one does.<p>If I&#x27;m using your site incorrectly, forgive this poor newb. My crazed-geek-genius-artist-brother frequents it and is impressed by me, finally. Btw if you&#x27;re interested (since I owe him) here&#x27;s his most recent Kickstarter campaign:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kickstarter.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;780943604&#x2F;fizzbuzz?ref=project_link" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kickstarter.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;780943604&#x2F;fizzbuzz?ref=...</a><p>Thank you so very much for your interest -

I have visited many of the places mentioned in the article. In terms of architecture they are beautiful but now all the places are in bad shape. The government and local population make no interest in saving the history.

They are very beautiful when dry. However, navigating these steps when there is water is not easy -- they get very slippery when the water level goes down but algae is still present in the supposedly drier steps. A cylindrical design where the steps go around the well with sealable openings may provide similar benefit with little maintenance overhead.

They may have been forgotten by tourism, but not by videogame level design.

OK, so a hole with steps is <i>great</i> when numerous people must walk down to the water level. But keeping junk out, while letting people in, is a hard problem. As historic places, they of course ought to be maintained. But today, deep cisterns with pumps make much more sense. Or maybe better, groundwater recharge, because you get natural filtration.

When I visited one of these in Agra last Fall, I assumed it to be either a bath or an aquarium to keep exotic animals. Some had so many tiny windows and grills, I thought they might be designed to use as laundry places. It&#x27;s interesting that all of these were simply wells.

How timely! I&#x27;m currently visiting India and noticed some stairs to nowhere yesterday. That&#x27;s most likely what is was :)

I took some friends on a sightseeing tour of the country last Fall - one of the most memorable sights was Chand Baori (Abhaneri), about 2&#x2F;3 of the way between Agra and Jaipur. The place was absolutely stunning, and it had maybe 3 visitors in the two hours while we were there.<p>It can only be stopped at if traveling by car, and while it&#x27;s a tad more treacherous than plane&#x2F;train, it&#x27;s the only way I&#x27;ll travel between the two cities if I have the time. You&#x27;ll get to experience some amazing scenery along the way, and it cost no more than $100 for the journey in a large A&#x2F;C car!

Thanks OP! I was at the Adalaj step well in Gujarat couple of months back, Its amazing to see these structure&#x27;s usefulness to the common people and beautiful carvings. Inside the step well the temperature is very cool like an AC despite the burning ~43 deg Celsius outside.

Que Dark Knight Rises references :)

Yeah this is great... In 1700 India had a population ~127 million people. In 1200 it was certainly much Lowe than that. Is the claim that this ancient technology would solve all of India&#x27;s water problems for 1+ billion people?