Research of the Irrigation Detachment

A detachment of the South-Kazakhstan complex expedition as part of the Semirechensk expedition began to study the ancient irrigation system of the Ak-tobe settlement in the Chuy valley.

Near Ak-tobe the settlement in the Chuy valley, ancient routes of three systems were discovered: Dada-aryk, Orazali-aryk, Kozhai-aryk. They are derived from the Aksu river, the left tributary of the Chu river; their paths are short. Dada-aryk, which irrigated the entire left-bank (main) part of the territory of Ak-tobe, was of the most significant importance in antiquity. It also supplied water to the city reservoir and manor houses. Its source was found 5 km up the river Aksu from the central mound of the settlement. The waterworks has not been preserved. The length of the main canal route is 10 km. Its width in the head part is 5 m, in the middle - up to 3 m. Distributors and sprinklers have a width of 1.7 and 0.8 m, respectively. The depth of the canal was not determined due to its poor preservation.

The right-bank territory of the settlement Ak-tobe was irrigated by two ditches: Orazali and Kozhai. The first one supplied water to the northeastern residential area, located on the elevated first terrace above the floodplain. The second - to the north, the layout of which was preserved in the Aksu river's floodplain.

The source of Orazali-aryk is located 4.5 km downstream from the Dara-aryk water intake. It's head part has been reconstructed and is used to provide water to the collective farm named after. Kalinin, Chu district. The current water intake facility is a small dam made of Karabur (fascin), with the help of which the Aksu channel is blocked. Karaburs are made of reeds have a length of up to 3 m and a diameter of 0.5-0.7 m. The size of the route is 5 km.

The head section of Kozhai-aryk was found 1.5 km downstream of the Aksu from the dam. At the source, a section of an earthen dam has been preserved in the form of a swollen rampart 5 m wide, 10 m long and 0.7 m high.

The layout of ancient fields, topographically connected with ditches, has been fixed. The bulk of the fields are adapted for irrigation by flooding. Part of the land was occupied by melons, vineyards and landscape gardening. Irrigation of these plots was carried out mainly along the furrows. The found material dates the discovered systems to the 6th-12th centuries.