NOLLI RESEARCH ARCHIVE · 015

Lost Persian Gardens

Preparing the illustrated journey…

Read the booklet summary

How does a landscape become inhabitable through care, water and institutions?

Seven chapters

  1. The landscape has an underside
  2. The work does not end at the outlet
  3. Make cold once. Keep it for months.
  4. Water held in the ground
  5. Sharing needs more than goodwill
  6. A garden made possible by water
  7. A garden is an agreement with its site

Thirteen field studies

  1. From ice to meltwater — Research on an Iranian glacier provides context for the water journey.*
  2. Into pores and fractures — The unsaturated zone influences water moving toward aquifers and the rate of recharge.
  3. Water held in sediment — Compare the illustrated water-bearing layer with unsaturated ground above the water table.
  4. Where the gallery meets groundwater — The constructed passage meets water already present in the ground.
  5. Access from above — Open shafts do not guarantee safe air. In one account the diggers watched their oil lamps for warning of bad air, and modern confined-space guidance warns that oxygen-deficient atmospheres can occur.
  6. Keeping the passage open — Compare a clear passage with a possible obstruction without treating it as a documented barrier.
  7. Leveling between two wells — Leveling from one shaft site to the next tells a surveyor how deep each shaft must be dug for the gallery to keep its gentle fall (Wulff; Hill and al-Hassan). The equipment shown follows one regional account; the rod held by the worker in the gallery is a different object, and it is not identified.
  8. A route shaped by gravity — The review notes a tradeoff: steeper galleries can erode more, while gentler grades can require more sediment clearing.
  9. From outlet to shared channels — The branches and gate are an explanation of this scene, not a plan of a verified historic site.
  10. Make ice in winter — Compare liquid water with a forming ice layer; the scene is not identified as the studied site.
  11. Move ice into storage — The illustrated route connects an outdoor ice surface with a separate store.
  12. Keep winter ice for summer — A shaded storage space reduces exposure to heat; specific layers shown here are not identified as a surveyed structure.
  13. The garden's water structure — See how a basin, water, edges and a cascade can work together without treating this garden as a surveyed site.

* Creative representation: glacier imagery and qanat landscapes form an imagined route.

Seven sources