I thought we had seen everything there was to see after the first day, but we resumed touring around first thing in the morning. It turns out we had yet to see the most amazing part of the site. What is truly remarkable about this city is that there was not ready access to water, and yet there was still a functioning city that could support thousands. It turns out that a system of water collection was in place to siphon water from a nearby wadi when it rained, and to store for the rest of the time. To ensure that there was enough water in the middle of the desert, they needed to store incredible amounts of water. So they built enormous underground cisterns to do just that. And amazingly, we got to climb down into one.
Climbing down stairs to the secret tunnel leading to the cistern.
This is just half of the largest of three cisterns, all of which
would have been filled with water. The light is peeking through
in the only section that is presently above ground.
I'm not much for group shots, but this seemed like an appropriate time.
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