History
Five thousand years ago, the craters of extinct volcanoes in Arabia were used as reservoirs by farmers for their irrigation water.
Dry climate and water scarcity in India led to early development of water management techniques, including the building of a reservoir at Girnar in 3000 BC. Artificial lakes dating to the 5th century BC have been found in ancient Greece. An artificial lake in present-day Madhya Pradesh province of India, constructed in the 11th century, covered 650 square metres (7,000 sq ft).
In Sri Lanka large reservoirs have been created by ancient Sinhalese kings in order to save the water for irrigation. The famous Sri Lankan king Parākramabāhu I of Sri Lanka stated " do not let a drop of water seep into the ocean without benefiting mankind ". He created the reservoir named Parakrama Samudra (sea of King Parakrama), which has astonished archaeologists.
Read more about this topic: Reservoir
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)