LOCAL APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE VILLAGES WITH DITCHES 16

LOCAL APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE

Technique:	VILLAGES WITH DITCHES
Local name:	Rift Valley, Lalibela
Site:	Rift Valley, Lalibela

Location

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Continent: Africa
Country: Ethiopia
Site: Rift Valley, Lalibela
Coordinates:
Lat: 12.03
Long: 39.04

Description of the local variant of the technique

On the Ethiopian highlands, along the slopes of the edges of the Rift Valley and in the valleys of the sunny lowlands there are thousands of villages. Each cluster of huts, placed on an emergence of high ground compared to the surrounding fields, or on a slight slope is surrounded by elliptical moats composed of, sometimes, concentric circles arranged one inside the other. The moats have multipurpose use to keep dry and drained the area inhabited, to constitute a reserve water supply and a sewage collection system for the fertilization of the soil. In some cases the ditches have branches or they double with interior semicircular curves. They are formed in this way so as to be useful to intercept more abundant flows, direct the water in specific areas, or use it to clean up the areas and channel the flow of water and manure to a branch in precise seasonal moments. In this area, the technique is still alive and its use verifiable.

Survival prospects

Preserved and functional

Images

1) the village is encircled by an elliptical moat similar to those of entrenched Neolithic villages. 2) Detail of the moat, which still serves multipurpose uses: to keep the inhabited area dry and drained, to establish a water supply and a sewage collection system for the fertilization of the soil. 3) Deep moats surround the complex monumental tombs of Lalibela. Their use for drainage and collection of water is evidenced by the conservation tanks for the precious liquid during the dry season.