Stepwells

Today I learned that where my society has historically dug narrow straight-down wells and installed a bucket on a rope or later, a pipe with a pump and spigot, in India and other places people have reached the water table by digging steps down to the level of the water, however deep that might be. Several stories if necessary.

The Wikipedia page for stepwells has pictures of humongous belowground constructions of steps, hundreds of thousands of steps in all different configurations. Some go this way and then that way, like switchbacks. Some go straight from here down and down to there. Some have arches to hold up a roof over the actual water, sometimes rows and rows of arches in levels as the water may be several stories down. The pictures that show the water show it sometimes clean and sometimes full of duckweed. Many historic stepwells have been filled in over time. Dust storms and detritus have blocked them. Some have been restored and are now in use. Some are associated with temples and include reflecting pools or places for the sick to bathe for healing. An archeological site shows a circular stepwell where the steps go around and around in a spiral so that many people can go down at once, from any starting point. It looks dizzying from above.

I wonder what they were like when everyone had to go down to get their water. I can imagine lurkers down there, and the sick who don’t want to get too far from life-saving water, especially if they don’t have family to bring them some. I wonder about the cleanliness of the water. On the other hand, water, any water, is necessary for life, full of germs or not. It would be catastrophic during cholera epidemics.