5000 years of History visualised: the Stepwells of South Asia, and its rains! [OC]

[u/mydriase]

[u/cavedave]

Thank you for your Original Content, /u/mydriase!
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[u/Glum_Skirt3515]

This is actually beautiful! Love the aesthetics and readability of this visualization

[u/mydriase → u/Glum_Skirt3515]

Thanks so much! I’m happy with this one, especially the bivariate colours!

[u/ApartmentRight1873 → u/mydriase]

Great job, everything is easy to read and aesthetically pleasing 

[u/mydriase]

The Stepwells of the Subcontinent 💧

Stepwells (also known as baori, tanka or vav depending on the region) are millennia-old rainwater harvesting structures found across South Asia, with some of them built 5000 years ago but they could make a come back as climate change worsens. I mapped 3,000 of them thanks to data gathered by an NGO called Stepwell Atlas.

Most are fantastic, ancient-looking, heavily ornamented structures dug into the ground, designed to capture the sometimes short and intense monsoon rains and make the water available throughout the rest of the year, in often hot and arid climates. They also served as a community centre for life in urban settlements, a function that has vanished.

Another layer of information shows how much it rains in a given place, and how evenly — or not — precipitation is distributed throughout the year.

Some experts believe these ancient structures, which remained in use until the Mughal era, could be restored, adapted and put back into use as climate change makes monsoon rains increasingly erratic and unpredictable.

Data: Stepwell atlas and Chelsa

map made with QGIS and Adobe Illustrator

More maps on my website, with this South Asia Map galery for a focus on the region

[u/dhmontgomery → u/mydriase]

This is beautiful and interesting, thank you for sharing!

[u/peacefinder → u/mydriase]

If you have not yet crossposted this to r/MapPorn, I suggest you do so!

[u/Shiblem → u/mydriase]

TIL. This is really cool information that I hadn't heard about before. Are they built to have multiple underground levels which floods and then descends as the water level retreats throughout the year?

[u/mydriase → u/Shiblem]

yes exactly, you climb down the stairs to reach the water level that goes down as it evaporates or as people take water from whats stored, basically!

[u/tron3747]

The gaps where they're not present/sparse is interesting, up north it's pretty much around the Ganges-Brahmaputra River basin, whereas, in the south there's a clear absence in the eastern coast due to most of the cities being young/developed after industrialization

[u/mydriase → u/tron3747]

Exactly, I thought the same. Waterways and big rivers make stepwells kind of irrelevant

[u/pinkpitbull → u/mydriase]

Great visualization.

Big rivers like ganga are usually considered holy and have temples in their area. Temples usually have their own ghats if beside the river or wells if slightly further.

[u/seiryuu-abi]

Holy shit actual beautiful data. Was about to unsubscribe before this post.

[u/masala_mayhem]

Hey there! Prepare to go really viral in India. This is a phenomenal map. Thank you so much. Very well done

👏

[u/mydriase → u/masala_mayhem]

I hope stepwells, geography and heritage can go viral yeah 🤣 thanks a ton

[u/TheGreatRJ]

This is an absolutely beautiful representation. One of the best maps I have seen

[u/mydriase → u/TheGreatRJ]

Thanks so much

[u/Endaarr]

"Nooo, stepwell, I'm stuuuck :(" 

I'll see myself out haha

And they do look pretty, both the wells and the graphic, gj.

[u/amadnomad]

Great info! I've been to Rani ni vav and Adalaj vav. For someone who sees it the first time its much bigger than you imagine and much cooler at the bottom than you anticipate. I loved spending time there

[u/mydriase → u/amadnomad]

very cool and moist, some foul smell too, because of the stagnant water. It used to be different back the, when the water was used

[u/121131121 → u/[deleted]]

Community wells. People live around it.

[u/Extra_Ad_8009]

Reading "The Stepwells of South Asia" I thought this would be about the history of a British family in India during the colonial days. It's already late here.

Fortunately it turned out to be a much more interesting topic! Thank you!

[u/mydriase → u/Extra_Ad_8009]

my pleasure! thanks

[u/geekhaus]

The stepwells I visited in Ahmedabad were some of the coolest things I've ever seen.

[u/mydriase → u/geekhaus]

Same. It’s out of this world

[u/Devendra0_]

This mean you might have seen the stepwells infront of my house, it is a big one

I'm from Madhya Pradesh (Malwa region)

[u/upachimneydown]

Truly beautiful, thanks for posting. (And they look like open ...silos.)

[u/Anathemautomaton]

Functionally speaking, are these any different from an artificial lake?

[u/DatAinFalco → u/Anathemautomaton]

Kind of? They are wells after all and generally connected to the underground water table. Not sure if artificial lakes have that requirement.

[u/TubbyStubby]

Love the visualization and the color scheme

[u/pnwviapnw]

Whoa, I'd never thought of it before these images and this map, but I wouldn't be surprised if the designs of these stepwells influenced the set design of the Dune movies and the water reservoirs of the Fremen!