Greening the desert at the southern edge of the Empire: the irrigation system of the Late Roman site of Umm al-Dabadib (Kharga Oasis, Egypt)

Abstract

Umm al-Dabadib is the modern name of a Late Roman settlement lying at the outskirts of the Kharga Oasis, in Egypt’s
Western Desert, which in 4th cent. AD marked the southern border of the Roman empire. Since 2012 the MUSA Center
(Napoli) is involved in the study of the well-preserved archaeological remains of the agricultural system, consisting
of the infrastructures to retrieve the groundwater and irrigate the vast plain, and of the field themselves. The site was
served by seven underground aqueducts of the type called qanat or manawir, that collected water and spread it on the
fields thanks to a network of open-air canals. The excellent level of preservation of both the irrigation system and the
fields offers enough information to start a study of how the entire system functioned.