Very strange article.

No word of the slavery that maintains the underground channel

A perfect example of where we are going if we consume non renewable resources. And yet the article isn’t cheap in praising their awareness

Repeating many times the same Roman perception.

Interesting this pops up on the front page now, I just listened to the "In our time" podcast episode about this civilization a couple of days ago. Baader-Meinhof strikes again!

Baader Meinhof alert. I had never heard of this civilisation, and their foggara water system, until I listened to the In Our Time episode a couple of days ago, and now here they are on HN.

> Today it is a ruin, but one that remains unmistakably alive.

wat? why is it still alive? the paragraph just ended like that, no further explanation? I get the feeling I should not trust these words. (Looking at the pre-2023 articles by the same writer, they are in a very different writing style. Sigh.)

That "ABOVE: aerial view of fortified structure of Sharba" picture though is amazing. Like it was swallowed by the sand, or it's an outgrowth, a welt being covered by a skin of sand.

And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat (foggaras) is intriguing.