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Bell-shaped
cistern in the Sasso Barisano of Matera subsequently reused
as an underground room. Note the orifice at the top for the
water, and the watertight plaster of a reddish colour due to
the pottery shards used in its making.
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Gravina
in Puglia. The channel carved out of the slope provides water
for the cistern dug out in the hypogeal room of the troglodyte
settlement.
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The
Sassi of Matera. Hypogeal barn and transformation of a cavity
into a rocky church. The agropastoral devices such as the silos
and the cisterns are previous to the process of urban densification
during which they lost their original practical function and were
turned into cave-dwellings or places of worship.
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Ibiza
(Spain), the entrance to an underground cistern. On the isle there
are water harvesting devices dating back to the Phoenicians and
hydraulic systems spread by Islam and typical of the Andalusian
civilisation.
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Ibiza
(Spain), cistern and cistern-jar. The system of the cistern-jars,
underground water reservoirs, is spread throughout the islands
and along the arid Mediterranean coasts, providing a reserve known
to travellers who used it during their journeys.
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Petra,
entrance to an underground cistern. The most ancient water harvesting
devices are small pools carved out of the highland which evolved
into the so-called "bell-shaped cisterns" because of their bulb
shape.
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Petra,
big open-air cistern. The structures built in the classic era
present a regular geometrical shape and large excavated volumes.
In some cases they have arches covered with stone slabs.
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