A qanat or kārīz is a system for transporting water from an aquifer or water well to the surface, through an underground aqueduct; the system originated approximately 3,000 years ago in what is now Iran. The function is essentially the same across North Africa and the Middle East but the system operates under a variety of regional names: qanat or kārīz in Iran, foggara in Algeria, khettara in Morocco, falaj in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, karez in Afghanistan, 'uyūn in Saudi Arabia, et al. The largest extant and functional qanat systems are located in Iran, Afghanistan, Oman, the oases of Turfan region of China, Algeria, and Pakistan.

This is a system of water supply that allows water to be transported over long distances in hot dry climates without losing much of the water to evaporation. The system has the advantage of being resistant to natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, and to deliberate destruction in war. Furthermore, it is almost insensitive to the levels of precipitation, delivering a flow with only gradual variations from wet to dry years.

Karez are constructed as a series of well-like vertical shafts, connected by a gently sloping tunnel. This taps into underground water and delivers it to the surface by gravity, without need for pumping. The vertical shafts along the underground channel are purely for maintenance purposes, and water is typically used only once it emerges from the daylight point.

The qanats still create a reliable supply of water for human settlements and irrigation in hot, arid and semi-arid climates, but the value of this system is directly related to the quality, volume and regularity of the groundwater. Much of the population of Iran and other arid countries in Asia and North Africa historically depended upon the water from qanats; many populated areas are close to the areas where qanats are possible.

Names

Common variants of qanat in English include kanat, khanat, kunut, kona, konait, ghanat, ghundat.

 () is an Arabic word that means "channel". In Persian, the words for "qanat" are  (or ; ) and is derived from earlier word  (). The word  () is also used in Persian. Other names for qanat include  (),   (Balochi),  (Azerbaijan);  (Morocco); ,  or  (Spain);  () (United Arab Emirates and Oman),  (North Africa). Alternative terms for qanats in Asia and North Africa are kakuriz, chin-avulz and mayun.

Origins

According to most sources, qanat technology was developed in ancient Iran by the Persian people sometime in the early 1st millennium BCE and slowly spread westward and eastward from there. However, some other sources suggest a Southeast Arabian origin. In addition, analogous systems appear to have been developed independently in China and in South America (specifically, Southern Peru).

A cotton species, Gossypium arboreum, is indigenous to South Asia and has been cultivated on the Indian subcontinent for a long time. Cotton appears in the Inquiry into Plants by Theophrastus and is mentioned in the Laws of Manu. As transregional trade networks expanded and intensified, cotton spread from its homeland to India and into the Middle East. One theory is that the qanat was developed to irrigate cotton fields, first in what is now Iran, where it doubled the amount of available water for irrigation and urban use. Because of this, Persia enjoyed larger surpluses of agricultural products, thus increasing urbanization and social stratification. The qanat technology subsequently spread from Persia westward and eastward.

In the extremely arid coastal desert of Peru, a technology of water supply similar to that of the qanats, called puquios, was developed. Most archaeologists believe that the puquios are indigenous and date to about 500 CE, but a few believe they are of Spanish origin, brought to the Americas in the 16th century. Puquios were still in use in the Nazca region in the 21st century.

Technical features

Qanats are constructed as a series of well-like vertical shafts, connected by a gently sloping tunnel which carries a water channel. Qanats efficiently deliver large amounts of subterranean water to the surface without need for pumping. The water drains by gravity, typically from an upland aquifer, with the destination lower than the source. Qanats allow water to be transported over long distances in hot dry climates without much water loss to evaporation.

It is very common for a qanat to start below the foothills of mountains, where the water table is closest to the surface. From this source, the qanat tunnel slopes gently downward, slowly converging with the steeper slope of the land surface above, and the water finally flows out above ground where the two levels meet. To connect a populated or agricultural area with an aquifer, qanats must often extend for long distances.

Qanats are sometimes split into an underground distribution network of smaller canals called kariz. Like qanats, these smaller canals are below ground to avoid contamination and evaporation. In some cases water from a qanat is stored in a reservoir, typically with night flow stored for daytime use. An ab anbar is an example of a traditional Persian qanat-fed reservoir for drinking water.

The qanat system has the advantage of being resistant to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, and to deliberate destruction in war. Furthermore, it is almost insensitive to the levels of precipitation, delivering a flow with only gradual variations from wet to dry years. From a sustainability perspective, qanats are powered only by gravity, and thus have low operation & maintenance costs once built. Qanats transfer freshwater from the mountain plateau to the lower-lying plains with saltier soil. This helps to control soil salinity and prevent desertification.

Qanat vs. spring-flow tunnel
The qanat should not be confused with the spring-flow tunnel typical to the mountainous area around Jerusalem. Although both are excavated tunnels designed to extract water by gravity flow, there are crucial differences. Firstly, the origin of the qanat was a well that was turned into an artificial spring. In contrast, the origin of the spring-flow tunnel was the development of a natural spring to renew or increase flow following a recession of the water table. Secondly, the shafts essential for the construction of qanats are not essential to spring-flow tunnels.

Impact of qanats on settlement patterns
A typical town or city in Iran, and elsewhere where the qanat is used, has more than one qanat. Fields and gardens are located both over the qanats a short distance before they emerge from the ground and below the surface outlet. Water from the qanats defines both the social regions in the city and the layout of the city.

The water is freshest, cleanest, and coolest in the upper reaches and more prosperous people live at the outlet or immediately upstream of the outlet. When the qanat is still below ground, the water is drawn to the surface via water wells or animal driven Persian wells. Private subterranean reservoirs could supply houses and buildings for domestic use and garden irrigation as well. Further, air flow from the qanat is used to cool an underground summer room (shabestan) found in many older houses and buildings.

Downstream of the outlet, the water runs through surface canals called jubs (jūbs) which run downhill, with lateral branches to carry water to the neighborhood, gardens and fields. The streets normally parallel the jubs and their lateral branches. As a result, the cities and towns are oriented consistent with the gradient of the land; this is a practical response to efficient water distribution over varying terrain.

The lower reaches of the canals are less desirable for both residences and agriculture. The water grows progressively more polluted as it passes downstream. In dry years the lower reaches are the most likely to see substantial reductions in flow.

Construction
Traditionally qanats are built by a group of skilled laborers, muqannīs, with hand labor. The profession historically paid well and was typically handed down from father to son.

Preparations

The critical, initial step in qanat construction is identification of an appropriate water source. The search begins at the point where the alluvial fan meets the mountains or foothills; water is more abundant in the mountains because of orographic lifting and excavation in the alluvial fan is relatively easy. The muqannīs follow the track of the main water courses coming from the mountains or foothills to identify evidence of subsurface water such as deep-rooted vegetation or seasonal seeps. A trial well is then dug to determine the location of the water table and determine whether a sufficient flow is available to justify construction. If these prerequisites are met, the route is laid out aboveground.

Equipment must be assembled. The equipment is straightforward: containers (usually leather bags), ropes, reels to raise the container to the surface at the shaft head, hatchets and shovels for excavation, lights, spirit levels or plumb bobs and string. Depending upon the soil type, qanat liners (usually fired clay hoops) may also be required.

Although the construction methods are simple, the construction of a qanat requires a detailed understanding of subterranean geology and a degree of engineering sophistication. The gradient of the qanat must be carefully controlled: too shallow a gradient yields no flow and too steep a gradient will result in excessive erosion, collapsing the qanat. And misreading the soil conditions leads to collapses, which at best require extensive rework and at worst are fatal for the crew.

Excavation
Construction of a qanat is usually performed by a crew of 3–4 muqannīs. For a shallow qanat, one worker typically digs the horizontal shaft, one raises the excavated earth from the shaft and one distributes the excavated earth at the top.

The crew typically begins from the destination to which the water will be delivered into the soil and works toward the source (the test well). Vertical shafts are excavated along the route, separated at a distance of . The separation of the shafts is a balance between the amount of work required to excavate them and the amount of effort required to excavate the space between them, as well as the ultimate maintenance effort. In general, the shallower the qanat, the closer the vertical shafts. If the qanat is long, excavation may begin from both ends at once. Tributary channels are sometimes also constructed to supplement the water flow.

Most qanats in Iran run less than , while some have been measured at ≈ in length near Kerman. The vertical shafts usually range from  in depth, although qanats in the province of Khorasan have been recorded with vertical shafts of up to . The vertical shafts support construction and maintenance of the underground channel as well as air interchange. Deep shafts require intermediate platforms to facilitate the process of removing soil.

The construction speed depends on the depth and nature of the ground. If the earth is soft and easy to work, at  depth a crew of four workers can excavate a horizontal length of  per day. When the vertical shaft reaches , they can excavate only 20 meters horizontally per day and at  in depth this drops below 5 horizontal meters per day. In Algeria, a common speed is just  per day at a depth of . Deep, long qanats (which many are) require years and even decades to construct.

The excavated material is usually transported by means of leather bags up the vertical shafts. It is mounded around the vertical shaft exit, providing a barrier that prevents windblown or rain driven debris from entering the shafts. These mounds may be covered to provide further protection to the qanat. From the air, these shafts look like a string of bomb craters.

The qanat's water-carrying channel must have a sufficient downward slope that water flows easily. However the downward gradient must not be so great as to create conditions under which the water transitions between supercritical and subcritical flow; if this occurs, the waves that result can result in severe erosion that can damage or destroy the qanat. The choice of the slope is a trade off between erosion and sedimentation. Highly sloped tunnels are subject to more erosion as water flows at a higher speed. On the other hand, less sloped tunnels need frequent maintenance due to the problem of sedimentation. A lower downward gradient also contributes to reducing the solid contents and contamination in water. In shorter qanats the downward gradient varies between 1:1000 and 1:1500, while in longer qanats it may be almost horizontal. Such precision is routinely obtained with a spirit level and string.

In cases where the gradient is steeper, underground waterfalls may be constructed with appropriate design features (usually linings) to absorb the energy with minimal erosion. In some cases the water power has been harnessed to drive underground mills. If it is not possible to bring the outlet of the qanat out near the settlement, it is necessary to run a jub or canal overground. This is avoided when possible to limit pollution, warming and water loss due to evaporation.

Maintenance
The vertical shafts may be covered to minimize blown-in sand. The channels of qanats must be periodically inspected for erosion or cave-ins, cleaned of sand and mud and otherwise repaired. For safety, air flow must be assured before entry.

Restoration
Some damaged qanats have been restored. To be sustainable, restoration needs to take into account many nontechnical factors beginning with the process of selecting the qanat to be restored. In Syria, three sites were chosen based on a national inventory conducted in 2001. One of them, the Drasiah qanat of Dmeir, was completed in 2002. Selection criteria included the availability of a steady groundwater flow, social cohesion and willingness to contribute of the community using the qanat, and the existence of a functioning water-rights system.

Applications of qanats

Irrigation and drinking water supply
The primary applications of qanats are for irrigation, providing cattle with water, and drinking water supply. Other applications include cooling and ice storage.

Cooling

Qanats used in conjunction with a wind tower can provide cooling as well as a water supply. A wind tower is a chimney-like structure positioned above the house; of its four openings, the one opposite the wind direction is opened to move air out of the house. Incoming air is pulled from a qanat below the house. The air flow across the vertical shaft opening creates a lower pressure (see Bernoulli effect) and draws cool air up from the qanat tunnel, mixing with it. The air from the qanat is drawn into the tunnel at some distance away and is cooled both by contact with the cool tunnel walls/water and by the transfer of latent heat of evaporation as water evaporates into the air stream. In dry desert climates this can result in a greater than 15 °C reduction in the air temperature coming from the qanat; the mixed air still feels dry, so the basement is cool and only comfortably moist (not damp). Wind tower and qanat cooling have been used in desert climates for over 1000 years.

Ice storage

By 400 BCE, Persian engineers had mastered the technique of storing ice in the middle of summer in the desert.

The ice could be brought in during the winters from nearby mountains, but in a more usual and sophisticated method they built a wall in the east–west direction near the yakhchal (ice pit). In winter, the qanat water would be channeled to the north side of the wall, whose shade made the water freeze more quickly, increasing the ice formed per winter day. Then the ice was stored in yakhchals—specially designed, naturally cooled refrigerators. A large underground space with thick insulated walls was connected to a qanat, and a system of windcatchers or wind towers was used to draw cool subterranean air up from the qanat to maintain temperatures inside the space at low levels, even during hot summer days. As a result, the ice melted slowly and was available year-round.

Qanats by country

Africa

Algeria

Qanats (designated foggaras in Algeria) are the source of water for irrigation in large oases like that at Gourara. The foggaras are also found at Touat (an area of Adrar 200 km from Gourara). The length of the foggaras in this region is estimated to be thousands of kilometers.

Although sources suggest that the foggaras may have been in use as early as 200 CE, they were clearly in use by the 11th century after the Arabs took possession of the oases in the 10th century and the residents embraced Islam.

The water is metered to the various users through the use of distribution weirs that meter flow to the various canals, each for a separate user.

The humidity of the oases is also used to supplement the water supply to the foggara. The temperature gradient in the vertical shafts causes air to rise by natural convection, causing a draft to enter the foggara. The moist air of the agricultural area is drawn into the foggara in the opposite direction to the water run-off. In the foggara it condenses on the tunnel walls and the air passes out of the vertical shafts. This condensed moisture is available for reuse.

Egypt
According to Herodotus, qanat irrigation technology was introduced to Egypt by the Achaemenid king Darius I during his reign of 522 BCE-486 BCE, which is supported by the historian Albert T. Olmstead.

There are four main oases in the Egyptian desert. The Kharga Oasis is one that has been extensively studied. There is evidence that as early as the second half of the 5th century BCE water brought in qanats was being used. The qanats were excavated through water-bearing sandstone rock, which seeps into the channel, with water collected in a basin behind a small dam at the end. The width is approximately , but the height ranges from 5 to 9 meters; it is likely that the qanat was deepened to enhance seepage when the water table dropped (as is also seen in Iran). From there the water was used to irrigate fields.

There is another instructive structure located at the Kharga oasis. A well that apparently dried up was improved by driving a side shaft through the easily penetrated sandstone (presumably in the direction of greatest water seepage) into the hill of Ayn-Manâwîr to allow collection of additional water. After this side shaft had been extended, another vertical shaft was driven to intersect the side shaft. Side chambers were built, and holes bored into the rock—presumably at points where water seeped from the rocks—are evident.

Libya

David Mattingly reports foggara extending for hundreds of miles in the Garamantes area near Germa in Libya: "The channels were generally very narrow – less than 2 feet wide and 5 high – but some were several miles long, and in total some 600 foggara extended for hundreds of miles underground. The channels were dug out and maintained using a series of regularly spaced vertical shafts, one every 30 feet or so, 100,000 in total, averaging 30 feet in depth, but sometimes reaching 130."

Morocco

In southern Morocco, the qanat (locally khettara) is also used. On the margins of the Sahara Desert, the isolated oases of the Draa River valley and Tafilalt have relied on qanat water for irrigation since the late 14th century. In Marrakech and the Haouz plain, the qanats have been abandoned since the early 1970s, having dried up. In the Tafilaft area, half of the 400 khettaras are still in use. The Hassan Adahkil Dam's impact on local water tables is said to be one of the many reasons for the loss of half of the khettara.

The black berbers (haratin) of the south were the hereditary class of qanat diggers in Morocco who build and repair these systems. Their work was hazardous.

Tunisia

The foggara water management system in Tunisia, used to create oases, is similar to that of the Iranian qanat. The foggara is dug into the foothills of a fairly steep mountain range such as the eastern ranges of the Atlas mountains. Rainfall in the mountains enters the aquifer and moves toward the Saharan region to the south. The foggara,  in length, penetrates the aquifer and collects water. Families maintain the foggara and own the land it irrigates over a ten-meter width, with length reckoned by the size of plot that the available water will irrigate.

Asia

Afghanistan
The Qanats are called Kariz in Dari (Persian) and Pashto and have been in use since the pre-Islamic period. It is estimated that more than 9,370 Karizes were in use in the 20th century. The oldest functional Kariz which is more than 300 years old and 8 kilometers long is located in Wardak province and is still providing water to nearly 3000 people. 40 years of war destroyed a number of these ancient structures. In these troubled times maintenance has not always been possible. To add to the troubles, as of 2008 the cost of labour has become very high and maintaining the Kariz structures is no longer possible. Lack of skilled artisans who have the traditional knowledge also poses difficulties. A number of the large farmers are abandoning their Kariz which has been in their families sometimes for centuries, and moving to tube and dug wells backed by diesel pumps.

However, the government of Afghanistan was aware of the importance of these structures and all efforts were made to repair, reconstruct and maintain (through the community) the kariz. The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development along with National and International NGOs made the effort.

There were still functional qanat systems in 2009. American forces were reported to have unintentionally destroyed some of the channels during expansion of a military base, creating tensions between them and the local community. Some of these tunnels were used to store supplies, and to move men and equipment underground.

Armenia
Qanats have been preserved in Armenia in the community of Shvanidzor, in the southern province of Syunik, bordering with Iran. Qanats are named kahrezes in Armenian. There are 5 kahrezes in Shvanidzor. Four of them were constructed in XII-XIVc, even before the village was founded. The fifth kahrez was constructed in 2005. Potable water runs through I, II and V kahrezs. Kahrez III and IV are in quite poor condition. In the summer, especially in July and August, the amount of water reaches its minimum, creating a critical situation in the water supply system. Still, kahrezes are the main source of potable and irrigation water for the community.

Azerbaijan
The territory of Azerbaijan was home to numerous kahrizes many centuries ago. Archaeological findings suggest that long before the ninth century CE, kahrizes by which the inhabitants brought potable and irrigation water to their settlements were in use in Azerbaijan. Traditionally, kahrizes were built and maintained by a group of masons called 'Kankans' with manual labour. The profession was handed down from father to son.

It is estimated that until the 20th century, nearly 1500 kahrizes, of which as many as 400 were in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, existed in Azerbaijan. However, following the introduction of electric and fuel-pumped wells during Soviet times, kahrizes were neglected.

Today, it is estimated that 800 are still functioning in Azerbaijan. These operational kahrizes are key to the life of many communities.

In 1999, upon the request of the communities in Nakhichevan, the International Organization for Migration began implementing a pilot programme to rehabilitate the kahrizes. By 2018 IOM rehabilitated more than 163 kahrizes with funds from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), European Commission (EC), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, US State Department (BPRM) and the self-contribution of the local communities.

In 2010, IOM began a kahriz rehabilitation project with funds from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). During the First Phase of the action which lasted until January 2013, a total of 20 kahrizes in the mainland of Azerbaijan have been renovated. In June 2018, the Second Phase has been launched and by 2022, IOM and KOICA aim to renovate fully a total of 40 kahrizes.

China

The oasis of Turpan, in the deserts of Xinjiang in northwestern China, uses water provided by qanat (locally called karez). The number of karez systems in the area is slightly below 1,000, and the total length of the canals is about 5,000 kilometers.

Turpan has long been the center of a fertile oasis and an important trade center along the Northern Silk Road, at which time it was adjacent to the kingdoms of Korla and Karashahr to the southwest. The historical record of the karez extends back to the Han dynasty. The Turfan Water Museum is a Protected Area of the People's Republic of China because of the importance of the Turpan karez water system to the history of the area.

Iran

In the middle of the twentieth century, an estimated 50,000 qanats were in use in Iran, each commissioned and maintained by local users. Of these, only 37,000 remain in use as of 2015.

One of the oldest and largest known qanats is in the Iranian city of Gonabad, and after 2,700 years still provides drinking and agricultural water to nearly 40,000 people. Its main well depth is more than 360 meters and its length is 45 kilometers. Yazd, Khorasan and Kerman are zones known for their dependence on an extensive system of qanats.

In 2016, UNESCO inscribed the Persian Qanat as a World Heritage Site, listing the following eleven qanats: Qasebeh Qanat, Qanat of Baladeh, Qanat of Zarch, Hasan Abad-e Moshir Qanat, Ebrāhim Ābād Qanat in Markazi Province, Qanat of Vazvān in Esfahan Province, Mozd Ābād Qanat in Esfahan Province, Qanat of the Moon in Esfahan Province, Qanat of Gowhar-riz in Kerman Province, Jupār – Ghāsem Ābād Qanat in Kerman Province, and Akbar Ābād Qanat in Kerman Province. Since 2002, UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP) Intergovernmental Council began investigating the possibility of an international qanat research center to be located in Yazd, Iran.

The Qanats of Gonabad, also called kariz Kai Khosrow, is one of the oldest and largest qanats in the world built between 700 BCE to 500 BCE. It is located at Gonabad, Razavi Khorasan Province. This property contains 427 water wells with total length of .

According to Callisthenes, the Persians were using water clocks in 328 BCE to ensure a just and exact distribution of water from qanats to their shareholders for agricultural irrigation. The use of water clocks in Iran, especially in Qanats of Gonabad and kariz Zibad, dates back to 500 BCE. Later they were also used to determine the exact holy days of pre-Islamic religions, such as the Nowruz, Chelah, or Yaldā – the shortest, longest, and equal-length days and nights of the years.
The Water clock, or Fenjaan, was the most accurate and commonly used timekeeping device for calculating the amount or the time that a farmer must take water from the Qanats of Gonabad until it was replaced by more accurate current clocks. Many of the Iranian qanats bear some characteristics which allow us to call them feat of engineering, considering the intricate techniques used in their construction. The eastern and central regions of Iran hold the most qanats due to low precipitation and lack of permanent surface streams, whereas a small number of qanats can be found in the northern and western parts which receive more rainfall and enjoy some permanent rivers. Respectively the provinces Khorasan Razavi, Southern Khorasan, Isfahan and Yazd accommodate the most qanats, but from the viewpoint of water discharge the provinces Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi, Fars and Kerman are ranked first to fourth.

Henri Golbot explored the genesis of the qanat in his 1979 publication,  (The Qanats. a Technique for Obtaining Water), He argues that the ancient Iranians made use of the water that the miners wished to get rid of it, and founded a basic system named qanat or Kariz to supply the required water to their farm lands. According to Goblot, this innovation took place in the northwest of the present Iran somewhere bordering Turkey and later was introduced to the neighboring Zagros Mountains.

According to an inscription left by Sargon II, the king of Assyria, In 714 BCE he invaded the city of Uhlu lying in the northwest of Uroomiye lake that lay in the territory of Urartu empire, and then he noticed that the occupied area enjoyed a very rich vegetation even though there was no river running across it. So he managed to discover the reason why the area could stay green, and realized that there were some qanats behind the matter. In fact it was Ursa, the king of the region, who had rescued the people from thirst and turned Uhlu into a prosperous and green land. Goblot believes that the influence of the Medeans and Achaemenids made the technology of qanat spread from Urartu (in the western north of Iran and near the present border between Iran and Turkey) to all over the Iranian plateau.
It was an Achaemenid ruling that in case someone succeeded in constructing a qanat and bringing groundwater to the surface in order to cultivate land, or in renovating an abandoned qanat, the tax he was supposed to pay the government would be waived not only for him but also for his successors for up to 5 generations. During this period, the technology of qanat was in its heyday and it even spread to other countries. For example, following Darius's order, Silaks the naval commander of the Persian army and Khenombiz the royal architect managed to construct a qanat in the oasis of Kharagha in Egypt. Beadnell believes that qanat construction dates back to two distinct periods: they were first constructed by the Persianse, and later the Romans dug some other qanats during their reign in Egypt from 30 BCE to 395 CE. The magnificent temple built in this area during Darius's reign shows that there was a considerable population depending on the water of qanats. Ragerz has estimated this population to be 10,000 people. The most reliable document confirming the existence of qanats at this time was written by Polybius who states that: "the streams are running down from everywhere at the base of Alborz mountain, and people have transferred too much water from a long distance through some subterranean canals by spending much cost and labor."

During the Seleucid Era, which began after the occupation of Iran by Alexander, it seems that the qanats were abandoned.

In terms of the situation of qanats during this era, some historical records have been found. In a study by Russian orientalist scholars it has been mentioned that: the Persians used the side branches of rivers, mountain springs, wells and qanats to supply water. The subterranean galleries excavated to obtain groundwater were named as qanat. These galleries were linked to the surface through some vertical shafts which were sunk in order to get access to the gallery to repair it if necessary.

According to the historical records, the Parthian kings did not care about the qanats the way the Achaemenid kings and even Sassanid kings did. As an instance, Arsac III, one of the Parthian kings, destroyed some qanats in order to make it difficult for Seleucid Antiochus to advance further while fighting him. The historical records from this time indicate a perfect regulation on both water distribution and farmlands. All the water rights were recorded in a special document which was referred to in case of any transaction. The lists of farmlands – whether private or governmental – were kept at the tax department. During this period there were some official rulings on qanats, streams, construction of dam, operation and maintenance of qanats, etc. The government proceeded to repair or dredge the qanats that were abandoned or destroyed for any reason, and construct the new qanats if necessary. A document written in the Pahlavi language pointed out the important role of qanats in developing the cities at that time. In Iran, the advent of Islam, which coincided with the overthrow of the Sassanid dynasty, brought about a profound change in religious, political, social and cultural structures. But the qanats stayed intact, because the economic infrastructure, including qanats was of great importance to the Arabs. As an instance, M. Lombard reports that the Moslem clerics who lived during Abbasid period, such as Abooyoosef Ya'qoob (died 798 CE) stipulated that whoever can bring water to the idle lands in order to cultivate, his tax would be waived and he would be entitled to the lands cultivated. Therefore, this policy did not differ from that of the Achaemenids in not getting any tax from the people who revived abandoned lands. The Arabs' supportive policy on qanats was so successful that even the holy city of Mecca gained a qanat too. The Persian historian Hamdollah Mostowfi writes: "Zobeyde Khatoon (Haroon al-Rashid's wife) constructed a qanat in Mecca. After the time of Haroon al-Rashid, during the caliph Moghtader's reign this qanat fell into decay, but he rehabilitated it, and the qanat was rehabilitated again after it collapsed during the reign of two other caliphs named Ghaem and Naser. After the era of the caliphs this qanat completely fell into ruin because the desert sand filled it up, but later Amir Choopan repaired the qanat and made it flow again in Mecca."

There are also other historical texts proving that the Abbasids were concerned about qanats. For example, according to the "Incidents of Abdollah bin Tahir's Time" written by Gardizi, in 830 CE a terrible earthquake struck the town of Forghaneh and reduced many homes to rubble. The inhabitants of Neyshaboor used to come to Abdollah bin Tahir in order to request him to intervene, for they fought over their qanats and found the relevant instruction or law on qanat as a solution neither in the prophet's quotations nor in the clerics' writings. So Abdollah bin Tahir managed to bring together all the clergymen from throughout Khorasan and Iraq to compile a book entitled Alghani (The Book of Qanat). This book collected all the rulings on qanats which could be of use to whoever wanted to judge a dispute over this issue. Gardizi added that this book was still applicable to his time, and everyone made references to this book.

One can deduce from these facts that during the above-mentioned period the number of qanats was so considerable that the authorities were prompted to put together some legal instructions concerning them. Also it shows that from the ninth to eleventh centuries the qanats that were the hub of the agricultural systems were also of interest to the government. Apart from The Book of Alghani, which is considered as a law booklet focusing on qanat-related rulings based on Islamic principles, there is another book about groundwater written by Karaji in 1010. This book, entitled Extraction of Hidden Waters, examines just the technical issues associated with the qanat and tries to answer the common questions such as how to construct and repair a qanat, how to find a groundwater supply, how to do leveling, etc.. Some of the innovations described in this book were introduced for the first time in the history of hydrogeology, and some of its technical methods are still valid and can be applied in qanat construction. The content of this book implies that its writer (Karaji) did not have any idea that there was another book on qanats compiled by the clergymen.

There are some records dating back to that time, signifying their concern about the legal vicinity of qanats. For example, Mohammad bin Hasan quotes Aboo-Hanifeh that in case someone constructs a qanat in abandoned land, someone else can dig another qanat in the same land on the condition that the second qanat is 500 zera' (375 meters) away from the first one.

Ms. Lambton quotes Moeen al-din Esfarzi who wrote the book Rowzat al-Jannat (the garden of paradise) that Abdollah bin Tahir (from the Taherian dynasty) and Ismaeel Ahmed Samani (from the Samani dynasty) had several qanats constructed in Neyshaboor. Later, in the 11th century, a writer named Nasir Khosrow acknowledged all those qanats with the following words: "Neyshaboor is located in a vast plain at a distance of 40 Farsang (≈240 km) from Serakhs and 70 Farsang (≈420 km) from Mary (Marv) ... all the qanats of this city run underground, and it is said that an Arab who was offended by the people of Neyshaboor has complained that; what a beautiful city Neyshaboor could have become if its qanats would have flowed on the ground surface and instead its people would have been underground." These documents all certify the importance of qanats during the Islamic history within the cultural territories of Iran.

In the 13th century, the invasion of Iran by Mongolian tribes reduced many qanats and irrigation systems to ruin, and many qanats were deserted and dried up. Later, in the era of the Ilkhanid dynasty especially at the time of Ghazan Khan and his Persian minister Rashid al-Din Fazl-Allah, some measures were taken to revive the qanats and irrigation systems. There is a 14th-century book entitled Al-Vaghfiya Al-Rashidiya (Rashid's Deeds of Endowment) that names all the properties located in Yazd, Shiraz, Maraghe, Tabriz, Isfahan and Mowsel that Rashid Fazl-Allah donated to the public or religious places. This book mentions many qanats running at that time and irrigating a considerable area of farmland. At the same time, another book, entitled Jame' al-Kheyrat, was written by Seyyed Rokn al-Din on the same subject as Rashid's book. In this book, Seyyed Rokn al-Din names the properties he donated in the region of Yazd. These deeds of endowment indicate that much attention was given to the qanats during the reign of Ilkhanids, but it is attributable to their Persian ministers, who influenced them.

In the years 1984–1985 the ministry of energy took a census of 28,038 qanats whose total discharge was 9 billion cubic meters. In the years 1992–1993 the census of 28,054 qanats showed a total discharge of 10 billion cubic meters. 10 years later in 2002–2003 the number of the qanats was reported as 33,691 with a total discharge of 8 billion cubic meters.

In the restricted regions there are 317,225 wells, qanats and springs that discharge 36,719 million cubic meters water a year, out of which 3,409 million cubic meters is surplus to the aquifer capacity. in 2005, in the country as a whole, there were 130,008 deep wells with a discharge of 31,403 million cubic meter, 33,8041 semi deep wells with a discharge of 13,491 million cubic meters, 34,355 qanats with a discharge of 8,212 million cubic meters, and 55,912 natural springs with a discharge of 21,240 million cubic meters.

In 2021, a British trained architect Margot Krasojević designed a luxury eco hotel based on principles of qanat and windcatchers in a desert in Iran, called Qanat. The project has not yet been built but offers ideas for applying ancient technology to modern-day cooling problems in the desert.

Iraq
A survey of qanat systems in the Kurdistan region of Iraq conducted by the Department of Geography at Oklahoma State University (US) on behalf of UNESCO in 2009 found that out of 683 karez systems, some 380 were still active in 2004, but only 116 in 2009. Reasons for the decline of qanats include "abandonment and neglect" prior to 2004, "excessive pumping from wells" and, since 2005, drought. Water shortages are said to have forced,  since 2005, over 100,000 people who depended for their livelihoods on karez systems to leave their homes. The study says that a single karez has the potential to provide enough household water for nearly 9,000 individuals and irrigate over 200 hectares of farmland. UNESCO and the government of Iraq plan to rehabilitate the karez through a Karez Initiative for Community Revitalization to be launched in 2010. Most of the karez are in Sulaymaniyah Governorate (84%). A large number are also found in Erbil Governorate (13%), especially on the broad plain around and in Erbil city.

India
In India, there are karez (qanat) systems are located at Bidar, Bijapur, Burhanpur "(Kundi Bhandara)" and Aurgangabad. The Bidar karez systems were probably the first one to have ever been dug in India. It dates to the Bahmani period. Bidar has three karez systems as per Gulam Yazdani's documentation. Other than Naubad there are two more karez systems in Bidar, "Shukla Theerth" and "Jamna Mori". The Shukla theerth is the longest karez system in Bidar. The mother well of this karez has been discovered by near Gornalli Kere, a historic embankment. The third system called Jamna mori is more of a distribution system within the old city area with many channels crisscrossing the city lanes. Restoration efforts commenced in 2014, with the desilting and excavation of the Naubad Karez in 2015, uncovering 27 vertical shafts linked to the Karez. The rejuvenation of the system has had a significant impact on the water-deficit city of Bidar. A seventh line of the system was discovered in 2016 during a sewage line excavation.

Valliyil Govindankutty, Assistant Professor in Geography at Government College Chittur, was responsible for rediscovery and mapping of the Naubad Karez System in 2012-2013. Later in 2014-2016 team YUVAA joined Govindankutty to help uncover Other two Karez Systems in Bidar. Detailed documentation of the Naubad karez system was done in August 2013 and a report was submitted to District Administration of Bidar that found several new facts. The research has led to the initiation of cleaning the debris and collapsed sections paving the way to its rejuvenation. The cleaning of karez has led to bringing water to higher areas of the plateau, and it has in turn recharged the wells in the vicinity.

The Bijapur karez system is much more complicated. A reveals that it has surface water and groundwater connections. The Bijapur karez is a network of shallow masonry aqueducts, terracotta/ceramic pipes, embankments and reservoirs, tanks etc. All weave together a network to ensure water reaches the old city. The system starts at Torwi and extends as shallow aqueducts and further as pipes; further it becomes deeper from the Sainik school area onward which exists as a tunnel dug through the geology. The system can be clearly traced up to Ibrahim Roja.

In Aurangabad the karez systems are called nahars. These are shallow aqueducts running through the city. There are 14 aqueducts in Aurangabad. The Nahar-i-Ambari is the oldest and longest. Its again a combination of shallow aqueducts, open channels, pipes, cisterns, etc. The source of water is a surface water body. The karez has been constructed right below the bed of lake. The lake water seeps through the soil into the Karez Gallery.

In Burhanpur the karez is called "Kundi-Bhandara", sometimes wrongly referred to as"Khuni Bhandara". The system is approx 6 km long starts from the alluvial fans of Satpura hills in the north of the town. Unlike Bidar, Bijapur and Aurgangabad the System airvents are round in shape. Inside the Karez one could see lime depositions on the walls. The Systems ends to carry water further to palaces and public fountains through pipe line.

Indonesia
It has been suggested that underground temples at Gua Made in Java reached by shafts, in which masks of a green metal were found, originated as a qanat.

Japan
In Japan there are several dozen qanat-like structures, locally known as 'mambo' or 'manbo', most notably in the Mie and Gifu Prefectures. Whereas some link their origin clearly to the Chinese karez, and therefore to the Iranian source, a Japanese conference in 2008 found insufficient scientific studies to evaluate the origins of the mambo.

Jordan
Among the qanats built in the Roman Empire, the  long Gadara Aqueduct in northern Jordan was possibly the longest continuous qanat ever built. Partly following the course of an older Hellenistic aqueduct, excavation work arguably started after a visit by emperor Hadrian in 129–130 CE. The Gadara Aqueduct was never quite finished and was put in service only in sections.

Pakistan
In Pakistan qanat irrigation system is endemic only in Balochistan. The major concentration is in the north and northwest along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and oasis of Makoran division. The Karez system of the Balochistan desert is on the Tentative List for future World Heritage Sites in Pakistan.

The acute shortage of water resources give water a decisive role in the regional conflicts arose in the course of history of Balochistan. Therefore, in Balochistan, the possession of water resources is more important than ownership of land itself. Hence afterward a complex system for the collection, channeling and distribution of water was developed in Balochistan. Similarly, the distribution and unbiased flow of water to different stockholders also necessitate the importance of different societal classes in Balochistan in general and particularly in Makoran. For instance, sarrishta (literally, head of the chain) is responsible for administration of channel. He normally owns the largest water quota. Under sarrishta, there are several heads of owners issadar who also possessed larger water quotas. The social hierarchy within Baloch society of Makoran depends upon the possession of largest quotas of water. The role of sarrishta in some cases hierarchical and passing from generations within the family and he must have the knowledge of the criteria of unbiased distribution of water among different issadar.

The sharing of water is based on a complex indigenous system of measurement depends upon time and space particularly to the phases of moon; the hangams. Based on seasonal variations and share of water the hangams are apportioned among various owners over period of seven or fourteen days. However, in some places, instead of hangam, anna used which is based on twelve-hour period for each quota. Therefore, if a person own 16 quotas it means that he is entitled for water for eight days in high seasons and 16 days in winter when water level went down as well as expectation of winter rain (Baharga) in Makran region. The twelve-hour water quota again subdivided into several sub-fractions of local measuring scales such as tas or pad (Dr Gul Hasan Pro VC LUAWMS, 2 day National conference on Kech).

The Chagai district is in the north west corner of Balochistan, Pakistan, bordering with Afghanistan and Iran. Qanats, locally known as Kahn, are found more broadly in this region. They are spread from Chaghai district all the way up to Zhob district.

Syria
Qanats were found over much of Syria. The widespread installation of groundwater pumps has lowered the water table and qanat system. Qanats have gone dry and been abandoned across the country.

Oman
In Oman from the Iron Age period (found in Salut, Bat and other sites) a system of underground aqueducts called 'Falaj' were constructed, a series of well-like vertical shafts, connected by gently sloping horizontal tunnels. There are three types of Falaj: Daudi () with underground aqueducts, Ghaili () requiring a dam to collect the water, and Aini () whose source is a water spring. These enabled large scale agriculture to flourish in a dryland environment. According to UNESCO, some 3,000 aflaj (plural) or falaj (singular), are still in use in Oman today. Nizwa, the former capital city of Oman, was built around a falaj which is in use to this day. These systems date to before the Iron Age in Oman. In July 2006, five representative examples of this irrigation system were inscribed as a World Heritage Site.

United Arab Emirates

The oases of the city of Al Ain (particularly Al-Ain, Al-Qattarah, Al-Mu'taredh, Al-Jimi, Al-Muwaiji, and Hili), adjacent to Al-Buraimi in Oman, continue traditional falaj (qanat) irrigations for the palm groves and gardens, and form part of the city's ancient heritage.

Multiple Aflaj have been found from the early Iron Age, as early as 1100 BC, and some sources claim these to be the earliest examples of the Qanat irrigation system.

The Falaj system continued to be in use into the Early Pre Islamic (300 BC - 300 AD), and were reintroduced after the Early Islamic conquests in the souqs of Julfar, Dibba, and Tawwam. Islamic geographer Al Muqqadasi stated:  "Hafit {Tuwwam} abounds in palm trees" in the 10th century, indicating extensive use of the Falaj system.

The Falaj system is still operating in the city of Al Ain, as well as in multiple mountainous settlements, including the villages of Wadi Shees and Masafi.

Europe

Greece
The Tunnel of Eupalinos on Samos runs for 1 kilometre through a hill to supply water to the town of Pythagorion. It was built on the order of the Tyrant Polycrates around 550 BCE. At either end of the tunnel proper, shallow qanat-like tunnels carried the water from the spring and to the town.

Italy
The  long Tunnels of Claudius, intended to partially drain the largest Italian inland water, Fucine Lake, was constructed using the qanat technique. It featured shafts up to 122 m deep. The entire ancient town of Palermo in Sicily was equipped with a huge qanat system built during the Arab period (827–1072). Many of the qanats are now mapped and some can be visited. The famous Scirocco room has an air-conditioning system cooled by the flow of water in a qanat and a "wind tower", a structure able to catch the wind and use it to draw the cooled air up into the room.

Luxembourg
The Raschpëtzer near Helmsange in southern Luxembourg is a particularly well preserved example of a Roman qanat. It is probably the most extensive system of its kind north of the Alps. To date, some 330 m of the total tunnel length of 600 m have been explored. Thirteen of the 20 to 25 shafts have been investigated. The qanat appears to have provided water for a large Roman villa on the slopes of the Alzette valley. It was built during the Gallo-Roman period, probably around the year 150 and functioned for about 120 years thereafter.

Spain
There are still many examples of  or qanat systems in Spain, most likely brought to the area by the Moors during their rule of the Iberian peninsula. Turrillas in Andalusia on the north facing slopes of the Sierra de Alhamilla has evidence of a qanat system. Granada is another site with an extensive qanat system. In Madrid they were called  and were used until the construction of the Canal de Isabel II. See  and  in Spanish.

The Americas
Qanats in the Americas, usually referred to as puquios or filtration galleries, can be found in the Nazca Province of Peru and in northern Chile. The origin and dating of the Nazca puquios is disputed, although some archaeologists have asserted that they were constructed by the indigenous people of the Nazca culture beginning about 500 CE.
The Spanish introduced qanats into Mexico in 1520 CE.

In the Atacama Desert of northern Chile the shafts of puquios are known as socavones. Socavones are known to exist in Azapa Valley and the oasis of Sibaya, Pica-Matilla and Puqui Nuñez. In 1918 geologist Juan Brüggen mentioned the existence of 23 socavones in the Pica oasis, yet these have since then been abandoned due to economic and social changes.

Cultural references

In an August 21, 1906, letter written from Tehran, Florence Khanum, the American wife of Persian diplomat Ali Kuli Khan, described the use of qanats for the garden at the home of her brother-in-law, General Husayn Kalantar,
January 1, 1913

 An old tradition in Iran was to hold symbolic wedding ceremonies between widows and qanats in which the widow became the "wife" of the qanat. This was believed to help ensure the continued flow of water.

See also

Notes

References

 Hadden, Robert Lee. 2005. "Adits, Caves, Karizi-Qanats, and Tunnels in Afghanistan: An Annotated Bibliography," United States Army Corps of Engineers, Army Geospatial Center.
 Ozden, Dursun Directed & Written by; ANATOLIAN WATER CIVILIZATION & ANATOLIAN KARIZES-QANATS, The Documentary Film & Book, 2004–2011 Istanbul, Turkey. http://www.dursunozden.com.tr

External links

 WaterHistory.org Article on Karez in Turpan, Xinjiang, China
 World Wildlife Fund Editorial on Karez in Afghanistan
 Useful information on Qanat provided by Farzad Kohandel, in arabic and in english
 Qanat
 Information on Qanats (includes photo of access shafts from above)
 International Center on Qanats and Historic Hydraulic Structures
 The origin and spread of qanats in the Old World – by PW English, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Volume 112, Number 3 June 21, 1968.
 The art and science of water, in Saudi Aramco May/June 2006
 Carlo Trabia: "Kanats of Sicily", in: Best of Sicily Magazine, March 2005, with Photo
 Lynn Teo Simarski, Oman's "Unfailing Springs", 1992, Saudi Aramco World
 "Engines of Ingenuity," episode no. 1250, "Water in the Desert," University of Houston, College of Engineering

Water wells
Iranian inventions
Irrigation
Water supply
Ancient technology
Aqueducts in Iran
World Heritage Sites in Iran

Qanat


Alberto Alén Pérez (1948 in Havana – 14 October 2004) was a Cuban musicologist and cellist.

Early life and education

Alén studied violoncello with Professor Fabio Landa at Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory in Marianao, Havana, and at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in the same city. He also studied psychology at the Havana University and musicology in the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) where he graduated in 1982.

Biography

As a cellist, Alén worked in several orchestras such as the Orquesta Popular de Conciertos founded by Alfredo Diez Nieto and the Orchestra of the Grand Theater of Havana.  He also performed in other orchestras affiliated to the Cuban Radio and Television Network. Alén taught at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) and worked as researcher at the Center for Research and Development of Cuban Music. He worked also as an adviser for musical programs in Cuban Television. Alberto Alén gave classes and lectures in Cuba, Mexico and Algeria. His works on musicology include: Perspectivas de la investigación musical actual (1976), La forma de las formas musicales (1978) and La génesis del espacio musical (1986). Also in 1986, Alén received the prestigious Casa de Las Américas Prize on the musicology category for his book: Diagnosticar la musicalidad.

Work

Although Alén's work remains relatively unknown to the general public, it actually represents a relevant contribution to musicology. According to Eugene Chadbourne, "Musicology students might consider making Spanish their Language Major simply to study the works of Alberto Alén... by any standards Alen's most challenging work has been a series of five books written and published between 1976 and 1986".

His early work: La forma de las formas musicales (The form of musical forms), is for the musicological science what the Bauhaus investigations and experimentations represented for the modern development of visual arts and design. In this article, Alberto Alén applied his extensive knowledge of psychology and statistics to the traditional musical forms analysis. In it he explains, referring to the perception of musical structures: "The visual forms (as well as the audition and tactile forms) are something different from a succession or sum of particular sensations. They are something else. The complex of stimulations that arrive to the retina (or to the Organ of Corti in the case of audition) generate, at a cortical level, – so affirms Pavlov- "functional systems that act integrally as in the case of an elemental conditioned reflex', where all particular contents of different stimulations is transcended when reflecting their multiple reciprocal relationships, that are continuously exerting influence between each other (González, 1960: 72; Rubinstein, 1967:274).

"Diagnosticar la Musicalidad, the latest of Alen's tomes, continues an in-depth study of practical musical phenomena that rivals the writings of the German composer and musicologist Paul Hindemith"... states Eugene Chadbuorne in reference to this particular work from Alberto Alén. In Diagnosticar la Musicalidad, the author presents to the general public the results of an extensive investigation, conducted between 1976 and 1983 with the purpose to improve the musical tests performed in Cuban schools to select new music students.

See also

Music of Cuba

References

1948 births
2004 deaths
Cuban cellists
Cuban musicologists
Musicians from Havana
20th-century musicologists
Instituto Superior de Arte alumni
20th-century cellists

Alberto Alén Pérez


Linwood Earl Briley, James Dyral Briley Jr., and Anthony Ray Briley were a sibling trio of serial/spree killers, rapists, and robbers who were responsible for a murder and robbery spree that took place in Richmond, Virginia, in 1979.

Linwood murdered a woman in 1971 and served a year in a reformatory. In 1979, the three siblings (with help from an accomplice, Duncan Eric Meekins) went on a killing spree in their home city of Richmond, killing at least eleven people. Two would-be victims escaped unharmed. Linwood and James were sentenced to death. In 1984, the two elder brothers escaped death row with four other inmates but were recaptured within three weeks. Linwood and James were executed by electric chair in 1984 and 1985, respectively. Anthony Briley and Duncan Meekins are both still incarcerated.

Early lives
The three Briley brothers, Linwood Earl (March 26, 1954 – October 12, 1984), James Dyral Jr. (June 6, 1956 – April 18, 1985) and Anthony Ray (born February 17, 1958), were brought up by their parents, James Dyral Briley Sr. and Bertha, in Richmond's Highland Park neighborhood. Their oldest brother, Edward Jerome "Boot" (July 7, 1952 – November 19, 2020) left the home to live with relatives in North Carolina in his early teen years and was not involved with his younger brothers later criminal activities.
With their younger brother Anthony, Linwood and James were regarded by older neighbors as young people who would help them repair cars or mow lawns. The brothers collected exotic pets, such as tarantulas, piranhas, and boa constrictors. When the brothers reached their teenage years, Bertha and James split up and she moved away. James Dyral Briley Sr., reportedly the only person the brothers respected, kept his bedroom door padlocked from the inside overnight.

First murder
On January 28, 1971, the first killing was committed by Linwood, at 16. While alone at home, Linwood fatally shot Orline Christian, a 57-year old neighbor, with a rifle from his bedroom window as she was hanging out some laundry on a clothesline. The crime almost went unidentified, but her relatives noticed a small bloody mark under her armpit at the viewing and asked a funeral director to re-examine the body. Upon a second examination, a small caliber bullet wound was discovered under her armpit.

Standing in Christian's back yard, a detective used a sheet of plywood to represent her body, with a hole cut out to represent the wound. He determined that the bullet came from the Briley residence. There, the murder weapon was found and Linwood admitted to the crime by saying, "I heard she had heart problems; she would have died soon anyway." After his lawyer convinced the judge that the shooting had been an accident, Linwood was sent to reform school to serve a one-year sentence for the killing. James followed in his path, and at a similar age was sentenced to time in juvenile hall for firing upon a police officer during a pursuit.

Murder spree
In 1979, the three Briley brothers and an accomplice, Duncan Eric Meekins, began the seven-month series of random killings that terrified the city and surrounding region.

Their first attack occurred on March 12, 1979, when Linwood knocked on the door of Henrico County couple William and Virginia Bucher. Claiming that he had car trouble and needed to use their telephone, Linwood eventually forced his way into their home. He held the couple at gunpoint and waved Anthony inside. The two Brileys tied up the couple and robbed the house, dousing each room with kerosene after stripping it of valuables. As they left, a lit match was tossed on the fuel. The two hurriedly packed their stolen loot – a television, CB radio, a .32 pistol, and jewelry – into their trunk and drove out of the area. William Bucher managed to free himself and his wife from their restraints, which Meekins apparently had not tied tightly enough, and escape just before the house became engulfed in flames. They would be the sole survivors of the rampage, although their cat perished in the blaze.

On March 21, Michael W. McDuffie, a vending machine serviceman, was assaulted, shot, and robbed in his suburban home by the Brileys.

Ten days later, on March 31, Linwood shot and killed 28-year old Edric Alvin Clark over a drug dispute involving Meekins.

On April 9, the brothers followed 76-year-old Mary Gowen across town from her babysitting job. They followed her into her house, beat, raped, robbed, and shot her. They escaped from the residence with many of her valuables.

The gang saw seventeen-year-old Christopher Philips hanging around Linwood's parked car on July 4. Suspecting that he might have been trying to steal the vehicle, the gang surrounded him and dragged him into a nearby backyard. There, the three brothers wrestled him to the ground. When Philips screamed for help, Linwood killed him by dropping a cinderblock onto his skull.

On September 14, disc jockey John Harvey "Johnny G." Gallaher was performing with his band at a South Richmond nightclub. Stepping outside between sets for a break, he inadvertently came right into the hands of the Brileys. Having been looking around town for a victim all night without success, they decided to lie in wait for whoever might happen to step outside. Gallaher was assaulted by Linwood and put into the trunk of his own Lincoln Continental. He was then driven out to the ruins of a paper mill on Mayo Island, located in the middle of the James River, where he was removed from the trunk of his car and shot dead at point blank range in the head. Six dollars was taken from his wallet and divided up. Gallaher's body was then dumped into the river. The remains were found two days later. When arrested months later, Linwood was still wearing a ring stolen from Gallaher's hand.

On September 30, 62-year-old private nurse Mary Wilfong was followed home to her Richmond apartment. The brothers surrounded her just outside the door and Linwood beat her to death with a baseball bat. The brothers then entered her apartment and robbed it of valuables.

Five days later, on October 5, just two blocks from the Briley home on 4th Avenue, 75-year-old Blanche Page and her 59-year-old boarder Charles Garner were murdered by the brothers. Page was bludgeoned to death while Garner was fatally assaulted and stabbed to death with various weapons, which included a baseball bat, five knives, a pair of scissors, and a fork. The scissors and fork were left embedded in Garner's back.

The victims of the final murders were the family of Harvey Wilkerson, a longtime friend of the brothers. On the morning of October 19, despite having promised a judge earlier that day that he would stay out of trouble while out on parole, James led his brothers on the prowl that night for yet another victim. Upon seeing the brothers down the street, Wilkerson, who lived with his 23-year-old common-law wife Judy Diane Barton (who was eight months pregnant at the time) and her 5-year-old son Harvey Wayne Barton, instinctively closed and locked his door. This action was noticed by the brothers, who then walked over to Wilkerson's front door. Terrified by their potential response if he refused them entry, Wilkerson allowed them in.

Both adults in the home were overpowered, bound and gagged with duct tape. Linwood then assaulted Judy Barton in the kitchen, where she was raped within hearing distance of the others. Meekins continued the sexual assault, after which Linwood dragged Barton back into the living room, briefly rummaged in the premises for valuables, and then left the house. The three remaining gang members covered their victims with sheets. James told Meekins, "you've got to get one", upon which Meekins took a pistol and fatally shot Wilkerson in the head. James then shot Barton to death. Harvey followed shortly.

Police happened to be in the general vicinity of the neighborhood, and later saw the gang members running down the street at high speed. They did not know where the shots had been fired. The bodies were not discovered until three days later, but the brothers were all arrested soon afterwards.

Capture and incarceration
During interrogation by police, Meekins was offered a plea agreement in return for turning state's evidence against the Brileys. He took the offer and provided a full detailing of the crime spree; as a result, he escaped the death penalty and was incarcerated under an alias at an out of state prison away from the Briley brothers. Under the agreement, Meekins was given a life sentence plus 80 years, which at the time of conviction would make him eligible for parole after serving 12-15 years.

A single life sentence with parole eligibility was handed down to Anthony Briley, youngest brother of the trio, due to his limited involvement in the killings. Because of Virginia's "triggerman statute", both James and Linwood received numerous life sentences for murders committed during the spree, but faced capital charges only in cases where they had physically committed the actual killing of the victim. Linwood was sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of Gallaher, while James received two death sentences, one for each of the murders of Judy Barton and her son Harvey. Both were sent to death row at Mecklenburg Correctional Center near Boydton in early 1980.

Escape
Linwood and James Briley were the ringleaders in a six-inmate escape from Virginia's death row at Mecklenburg Correctional Center on May 31, 1984. During the early moments of the escape, in which a coordinated effort resulted in inmates taking over the death row unit, both Brileys expressed strong interest in killing the captured guards by dousing them with rubbing alcohol and tossing a lit match. Willie Lloyd Turner, another death row inmate (convicted of murder; executed by lethal injection on May 25, 1995), stepped in James' way and blocked him from doing so. Meanwhile, Wilbert Lee Evans, on death row after being convicted of the murder of Alexandria City sheriff's deputy William Truesdale, prevented Linwood from raping a female nurse. Evans was executed on October 17, 1990, despite pleas for clemency and confirmation from the Mecklenburg guards who said they owed their lives to Evans. Alexandria Commonwealth's Attorney John Kloch opposed the clemency and Democratic Governor L. Douglas Wilder, the state's first African-American governor, ultimately denied clemency.

The group's initial plan was to escape into Canada. Two inmates, Lem Davis Tuggle Jr. (convicted of raping and murdering one woman shortly after being released for another such crime; executed by lethal injection on December 12, 1996) and Willie Leroy Jones (convicted of two capital murders; executed on September 11, 1992), almost succeeded, making it as far as Vermont before being captured at gunpoint by police. The group was held at Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Rutland, pending their extradition back to Virginia. Splitting off from their two remaining co-escapers at Philadelphia, the Brileys went to live near their uncle, Johnny Lee Council, in the north of the city. They were captured on June 19 by a heavily armed group of FBI agents and police, who had determined their location by placing wiretaps on their uncle's phone line.

Executions
In short order, the remaining appeals ran out for both brothers. Several weeks before his execution, James Briley married a writer who was convinced of his innocence claims, Evangeline Grant Redding, on March 28, 1985, in a prison ceremony attended by his father, James Sr. The brothers were executed in the electric chair at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond; Linwood on October 12, 1984, and James on April 18, 1985. Linwood's last meal consisted of grilled tenderloin steak, a baked potato, green peas, a salad with French dressing, rolls with butter, cake, peaches, punch, and milk. His last words were "I am innocent." James's last meal consisted of fried shrimp with cocktail sauce and a lemon-lime-flavored soft drink. In his final moments, he smiled at the witnesses and twice asked them "Are you happy?"

Before James was executed, Shirley Barton Hayes, the mother of Judy Barton, pleaded for him to admit his guilt. She said she didn't believe in capital punishment, but asked him to confess "so his soul would be right with God."

The day James was executed, fellow inmates tried to delay the process by attacking the guards with homemade knives. Nine guards and one inmate were injured.

Linwood was survived by one son, Norman Laquan Ampy, who later served time in prison for bank robbery and died in 2015. James is survived by three daughters, who live in Richmond. The brothers are buried at the Council family's cemetery plot in Bethel, North Carolina.

Anthony Ray Briley was convicted of four counts of first degree murder, three of those for the Barton family murders. He received a life sentence plus 119 years, with the possibility of parole. Anthony avoided capital murder charges since it could not be proven that he had personally committed any of the murders. He is incarcerated at Augusta Correctional Center, about 20 miles outside Staunton, Virginia. To date, all his applications for parole have been denied by the state parole board, as have those of Duncan Meekins, despite recommendations from former prosecutors Robert J. Rice and Warren Von Schuch, who have cited Meekins' assistance in prosecuting and convicting the Briley brothers.

Victims
 January 28, 1971: Orline Christian, 57 (was shot and killed by Linwood alone)
 1979
 March 21: Michael Wayne McDuffie, 20
 March 31: Edric Alvin Clark, 28 (shot by Linwood over a drug dispute)
 April 9: Mary Gowen, 76
 July 4: Christopher Phillips, 17
 September 14: John Harvey "Johnny G." Gallaher, 62
 September 30: Mary Wilfong, 62
 October 5: The double killing
 Blanche Page, 75
 Charles Garner, 59
 October 19: The Wilkerson family
 Harvey Wilkerson, 27
 Judy Diane Barton, 23 (was 8 months pregnant)
 Harvey Wayne Barton, 5

See also
 Capital punishment in Virginia
 List of people executed in Virginia
 List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
 List of serial/spree killers in the United States
 List of prison escapes

References

External links

1971 murders in the United States
1979 murders in the United States
20th-century American criminals
American serial killers
American spree killers
Family murders
People from Richmond, Virginia
Quartets
Serial killers from Virginia
Sibling trios
Year of birth missing

Briley Brothers


Jeremias de Dekker or Decker (1610 – November 1666) was a Dutch poet.

Biography
Dekker was born in Dordrecht. His father was a native of Antwerp, who, having embraced the reformed religion, had been compelled to take refuge in the Netherlands. Entering his father's business at an early age, Jeremias found leisure to cultivate his taste for literature and especially for poetry, and to acquire without assistance a competent knowledge of English, French, Latin and Italian.

His first poem was a paraphrase of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Klaagliedern van Jeremias), which was followed by translations and imitations of Horace, Juvenal and other Latin poets. The most important of his original poems were a collection of epigrams (Puntdichten) and a satire in praise of avarice (Lof der Geldzucht). The latter is his best-known work. Written in a vein of light and yet effective irony, it is usually ranked by critics along with Erasmus's Praise of Folly. Dekker died in Amsterdam in November 1666.

Works
A complete collection of his poems, edited by Brouerius van Nideck, was published at Amsterdam in 1726 under the title Exercices poétiques (2 vols. 4to.). Selections from his poems are included in Siegenbeck's Proeven van nederduitsche Dichtkunde (1823), and from his epigrams in Geijsbeek's Epigrammatische Anthologie (1827).

Notes

References

1610s births
1666 deaths
17th-century Dutch poets
Dutch male poets
People from Dordrecht

Jeremias de Dekker


The Zagaran Pass (el. 16,420 ft.) is a high mountain pass that connects Yarkhun River valley in Chitral District to the Gupis valley in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The pass is about 3 miles southwest from Bahushtar Zom peak (5704 m) and about 5 miles east-southeast from Malo Zom peak (5652 m). The border between Chitral and Northern Areas runs through the pass. The top of the pass is on the rapidly retreating glacier. 5 miles to the east of the pass is the valley of Bakhushtaro river that flows southeast for 12 miles up to its confluence with Ghizar river some 6 miles west of village Pinal. To the west of the pass is an unnamed westward directed valley that after 15 miles ends at Yarkhun river some 5 miles northeast of town Mastuj.

References

Mountain passes of Gilgit-Baltistan
Chitral District
Gupis-Yasin District

Zagaran Pass


Jugend musiziert is a very common music competition for children's and young people in Germany and Austria. Almost a million children's and young people have in 57. years participated at Jugend Musiziert. For many of them, this was the first step in a very successful music career.

Jugend musiziert in Germany
In Germany, the nationwide competition includes children and adolescents up to the age of 21, for singing and organ up to the age of 27. It serves the musical location, the comparison with others and the promotion. The participants may not yet be in a musical vocational training (full course) or professional practice. The participants play pieces of music from different eras. The length of the lecture depends on the age group and the requirements in the individual categories and ranges from 10 to 20 minutes. The competition is divided into three phases: First, it is held at regional level, in around 140 regions in Germany and at around 30 German schools in other European countries. Bearer of a "1st Prizes at regional level "are" passed on "to the respective national competition (a German school in Northern, Western and Southern Europe also holds its own national competition) and winner of a" 1. State level "at the appropriate minimum age for the federal competition. The solo and ensemble categories change every three years. The "classical" orchestral instruments formed the foundation of "Jugend musiziert" from the very beginning. In 1970 the piano was added, later drums, plucked instruments and vocal categories. In 2009 the solo category "Bass (Pop)" was introduced, followed by "Guitar (Pop)" and "Vocals (Pop)". The most recent expansion in 2015 was the solo category "Special Instrument", with a chopping board and baglamas. It will be offered as an ensemble category for the first time in 2016. In 2015, "Jugend musiziert" had more than 20,000 participants nationwide. Around 7,500 of them were forwarded to the state competitions; almost 2,400 first state prize winners took part in the federal competition. The nationwide competition, which was held for the first time in 1964, is sponsored by the German Music Council. Leading associations are: Federal Association of Music Lessons, Federal Association of German Orchestra Associations, German Tonkünstlerverband (DTKV), Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland (JMD), Association of German Music Schools (VdM). Jugend musiziert is funded by the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, the local umbrella organizations, the municipalities and as the main sponsor of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.

In 2020, all state competitions and the federal competition in Freiburg were canceled for the first time in the 57-year history of Jugend musiziert music because of the COVID-19 Virus.

Jugend musiziert in Austria
The Austrian competition was founded in 1969 by F. Knoppek in Leoben as an instrumental and vocal competition for young people from Austria and South Tyrol aged 10–21 (for brass instrument players, double bass and bassoon up to 23, for singers aged 16–26) . It takes place every two years - since 1975 with preselection in so-called "state competitions" in the state capitals and the "federal competition" in Leoben. Participants are delegated from all Austrian federal states. The Tyrolean delegation also includes participants from South Tyrol.

In the Austrian competition, the number of participants rose from 235 in 1969 to over 2000 from 1989. The representatives of the federal states worked out reform proposals (annual implementation, division into a more funding-oriented basic competition and a top competition based on the professional training standard, inclusion of missing instruments and instrumentation, introduction of a binding "compulsory piece" from the 20th century, etc.). In 1993 the competition was last held nationwide under the old name. As an alternative, the federal states and the federal ministries concerned with the aspects of youth, school and university as well as music funding founded the organization Musik der Jugend, which organizes the Prima la musica competition.

In Leoben itself, the sponsoring association continued to hold smaller competitions under the name "Jugend musiziert" it protected in the following years, albeit limited to individual categories and at irregular intervals.

References

Other websites
 Jugend musiziert (official Homepage)
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Baden-Württemberg
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Bavaria
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Berlin
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Brandenburg
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Hesse
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Lower Saxony
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board North Rhine-Westphalia
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Rhineland-Palastinate
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Saarland
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Saxony
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Saxony-Anhalt
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Schleswig-Holstein
 Jugend musiziert - Federal state board Thuringia

Austrian culture
German culture
Music competitions

Jugend musiziert


The Meganisoptera were the giant dragonflies from the Palaeozoic era. They lived in the Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous) epoch to the late Permian period. The group used to be called Protodonata.

The largest of these dragonflies was Meganeuropsis from the early Permian. It had a wingspan of 28 inches (71 cm). Not all this group had giant size, but they were all larger than modern dragonflies.

The modern classification is as follows:

superorder Odonaptera
Order Meganisoptera
Order Odonata

Odonata

Meganisoptera


Samuel Phillips (28 December 1814 – 14 October 1854) was an English journalist.

Life
Phillips was born in London, the son of a Jewish tradesman. He was educated at University College London, and then at Göttingen. Having renounced the Jewish faith, he returned to England and entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, with the design of taking orders. His father's death, however, meant that he could not afford to stay at Cambridge longer than a term, and in 1841 he took to literary work. He wrote a novel, Caleb Stukely (1854), and other tales, and about 1845 began a connection with The Times as literary critic. In the following year he purchased the John Bull newspaper, and edited it for a year. Two volumes of his essays from The Times appeared in 1852 and 1854. Phillips took an active part in the formation of the Crystal Palace Company, and wrote their descriptive guides. In 1852 the University of Göttingen conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.  He died in Brighton.

References

Sources

English male journalists
1814 births
1854 deaths
Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
19th-century British journalists
19th-century English male writers

Samuel Phillips (journalist)


was a Japanese businessman and the founder of Namco. He was the company's president up until 2002, where he took a ceremonial role in its management. Following the formation of Bandai Namco Holdings, Nakamura would retain an honorary position in the video game division, Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Born in Tokyo, Nakamura graduated from the Yokohama Institute of Technology in 1948, having earned a degree in shipbuilding. Nakamura would found his own company in 1955, Nakamura Seisakusho, Ltd., which produced pop-cork guns and coin-operated mechanical rides for Japanese department store rooftops. In 1974, Nakamura purchased the Japanese division of Atari from Nolan Bushnell, seeing it as a perfect opportunity to get into the market, and were allowed to release the company's games in Japan. His company would be renamed to "Namco" in 1977, and a year later would release its first video game produced in-house. Under Nakamura's leadership, Namco would become one of the most dominant video game companies in Japan, alongside Nintendo, Sega and Konami.

Nakamura purchased Japanese film studio Nikkatsu in 1993 and be involved with many of their films, being credited for several of them. He also led Namco to begin maintaining arcade centers and amusement parks across Japan and soon overseas, such as Wonder Eggs in Tokyo, and to purchase the Aladdin's Castle chain from Bally. Nakamura would also assist in the formation of Japanese developer Monolith Soft, and become the chairman of the Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association (JAMMA). In 2002, he would step down as Namco's CEO, instead taking on a ceremonial role in the company's management. After Namco merged with Bandai in 2005 to form Bandai Namco Holdings, Nakamura would retain an honorary position in the company's video game branch.

Nakamura is credited as a pioneer in the video game industry for his accomplishments, and one of the most important figures in video game history. In 2007, he was awarded the "Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette" by the Japanese government for his contributions to video games, and was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in 2010. His influence on the industry would have him considered "the father of Pac-Man". Nakamura died on January 22, 2017, at age 91, which was announced a week later by Bandai Namco out of respect for his family's privacy.

Biography

Early life and formation of Namco
Masaya Nakamura was born on December 24, 1925, in Tokyo. He graduated from the Yokohama Institute of Technology in 1948 with a degree in shipbuilding, however following World War II he was unable to secure a job with his experience. His father owned a shotgun repair business in a Tokyo department store. In the wake of Japan's economic recovery, Nakamura founded his own company on June 1, 1955, "Nakamura Seisakusho, Ltd.". Beginning with US$3,000, he purchased two mechanical rocking horse rides that had to be installed on the roof of a department store due to stiff competition. Each day, Nakamura would clean and repair the rides if needed, and greeted the mothers of the children when they arrived. His company was renamed to "Nakamura Manufacturing Co., Limited." in 1959. Following this, Nakamura would make a deal with the Mitsukoshi department store chain in the early 1960s to install a ride on the rooftop of one of their stores. This ride, named the "Roadaway Race", was popular with children and led to Mitsukoshi commissioning Nakamura and his company to install similar rides for all of their stores. Nakamura's company would continue to design similar mechanical games for other stores — one such game was Periscope (1965), claimed to be the first game he designed himself.

Acquisition of Atari Japan
By the early 1970s, Nakamura and his company had shifted away from mechanical amusement rides to coin-operated arcades games. Many of these were racing games that used electro-mechanical projection technology, such as Racer (1970), Formula-X (1975) and F-1 (1976). In 1972, Nakamura visited the Japanese branch of Atari, formed by Nolan Bushnell as a response to the country's vast market and enthusiasm for arcade games. With the business struggling, Atari Japan was closed in 1974 and put up for auction — Nakamura saw this as the perfect opportunity to get into the video game market and purchased it for US$500,000, beating rival Sega's offer of US$50,000. Atari Japan president Hideyuki Nakajima was then promoted as vice president of Nakamura Manufacturing. In 1976, Bushnell sent Nakamura Breakout, which Nakamura saw as a sure-fire hit — to his disappointment, his company was only allowed to distribute the game and was forbidden from exclusive manufacturing rights. Nakamura, in response, requested for as many units possible.

Following his company's distribution of Breakout in Japan, Nakamura noticed a surge of counterfeit units across the country. After some investigation,  he had found that a Yakuza clan had been creating them, and met with their leader to request they cease production. In response, the man said he would "suppress" Nakamura's competitors and make him Japan's largest video game developer. Nakamura declined, fearing it would lead to both the downfall of his company and the industry as a whole. As a counter-measure, Nakamura requested additional Breakout units from Atari as soon as possible. Nakamura flew to London to meet with Bushnell at the Music Operators Association (MOA) tradeshow to discuss the issue — Nakamura claimed that Bushnell was drunk and unable to listen to him, leading to him having his company produce Breakout units without Atari's permission. Breakout was an unprecedented success for his company, becoming one of the most successful video game manufacturers in Asia alongside Sega and Taito. This would lead to Atari taking legal action in the 1970s. Nakamura's company was renamed to Namco in 1977, an acronym of their older name. Nakamura would also open up a division in the United States as requested by Nakajima, Namco America, located a few blocks away from the Atari headquarters in Sunnyvale, California — Nakajima would become the president of the company.

Arcade successes and Atari Games
Impressed by the success of the Atari Japan acquisition, Nakamura was interested in his company creating his own arcade games in-house. He purchased a surplus amount of PDA-80 microcomputers from NEC and instructed his employees to analyze the hardware to intentionally create video games. Namco's first in-house game was Gee Bee (1978), designed by Toru Iwatani. Namco's first major success in arcades was Galaxian (1979), credited as one of the first video games to use RGB. The game's success led to Nakamura approaching Midway Games to release some of their games in the United States, which they agreed to. Pac-Man (1980) became Namco's biggest success, selling over 400,000 arcade units in the United States alone and becoming one of the highest-grossing video games of all time. It was designed by one of Namco's new hires, Toru Iwatani, with Nakamura suggesting the game be named after the sound the character made while eating, "paku paku". In a 1983 interview, Nakamura said that he "never thought it would be this big". Under Nakamura's leadership, Namco would produce several successful games throughout the 1980s, including Galaga (1981), Ms. Pac-Man (1982), Dig Dug (1982), Pole Position (1982), Xevious (1983) and The Tower of Druaga (1984). Unlike rival companies, notably Nintendo, Nakamura tested each of Namco's video games before they were released, sometimes for up to 23 hours at a time. Nakamura is considered to have been one of the first to identify the potential of "screen addiction" due to how much younger people would play Pac-Man and his company's other games. Because of his vision in developing arcade games, Nakamura is often considered "the father of Pac-Man", and credited as one of the instrumental people behind Japan's video game industry. According to RePlay magazine, many considered Nakamura to be "the single most important person in coin-op" by 1990. Nakamura had also pushed Namco to be one of the first third-party developers for the Nintendo Family Computer, which was soaring in popularity.

In 1985, Warner Communications split Atari into two companies and sold off each of their shares. Nakamura was given 60% of the shares for Atari Games, the arcade division, and gave Nakamura the right to distribute its games in Japan, such as Marble Madness and Hard Drivin'. He had hoped the acquisition would develop a strong relation between the two companies like it once had in the 1970s, however he instead had a distaste towards it and sold off his stake to Hideyuki Nakajima in 1987, who would resign as president of Namco America and become the CEO of Tengen. In 1989, Namco had to renew the preferential terms they had for being one of Nintendo's first third-party licensees — when Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi refused to renew them, Nakamura grew furious and publicly denounced Nintendo for monopolistic practices, boasting that his company would shift all home console development to the Sega Mega Drive. In 1990, Nakamura resigned as president of Namco, passing it on to Masanabe Manabe and assume his role as the company chairman. Manabe resigned in 1992 due to health problems, leading to Nakamura returning as his role of president until 2002.

Later years and death
Nakamura became chairman of the Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association (JAMMA), and led Namco to begin construction and maintenance of large-scale amusement parks across Japan, such as Wonder Eggs in Tokyo and Namja Town in Sunshine City. Namco would establish several high-profile franchises throughout the 1990s, notably Ridge Racer (1993) and Tekken (1994). After Namco purchased Japanese film studio Nikkatsu in 1993, Nakamura became involved with in film production and credited as executive producer in a number of their films. He was recognized by the Japanese Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1997 for his contributions to the advancement of computer entertainment. Nakamura helped assist Tetsuya Takahashi with the formation of Japanese developer Monolith Soft in 1999, where Namco would publish their Xenosaga series. The same year on April 1, Nakamura was appointed chairman of the Multimedia Content Development Association (MCDA). Following the unveil of the Xbox, Nakamura formed an alliance with Microsoft to produce games for the console, with Namco becoming one of the first Japanese developers to support it. Nakamura stepped down as CEO of Namco in 2002, taking on a ceremonial role in the company's management. In 2005, Namco merged with Bandai to form Bandai Namco Holdings, Japan's third-largest video game developer by revenue and the seventh in the world. Nakamura retained an honorary position in its video game division Namco Bandai Games, now known as Bandai Namco Entertainment. Up to that point, Nakamura was Japan's 68th richest person.

He was awarded the "Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette" by the Japanese government at the 2007 Spring Conferment of Decorations for his contributions to the Japanese entertainment industry,. and was one of the inaugural inductees in the International Video Game Hall of Fame in 2010 as one of the five video game pioneers, acknowledging his induction via a video feed. He was inducted alongside Pac-Man to coincide with the game's 30th anniversary. Nakamura died on January 22, 2017, at the age of 91. The announcement was made a week later by Bandai Namco Holdings on January 30, requesting respect for his family's privacy. His funeral was held privately, with a public memorial service planned by the company in the following weeks.

References

External links

1925 births
2017 deaths
Japanese video game businesspeople
Namco
Japanese film producers
Technology company founders
Japanese company founders
Pac-Man
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class
Businesspeople from Tokyo

Masaya Nakamura (businessman)


Stephen Muss (born 1928) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist known for leading the resurgence and redevelopment of Miami Beach, Florida.

Early life and education
Muss was born to a Jewish family in New York City and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. His father, Alexander, was one of eleven children, six of them brothers who worked for their father's construction company building homes during and after the Great Depression. Muss worked for the family business first as a laborer and then in sales and construction supervision.

Career
Muss eventually went into a partnership with his father founding Alexander Muss & Sons developing 30 acres of tract homes on Long Island. From 1952 through 1968, they went on to develop over 20 subdivisions with about 20,000 houses in Queens, New Jersey, and on Long Island; they also built over 4,000 multifamily units. In the 1950s, his family moved to Florida where his father, now a multi-millionaire, built the Seacoast Towers in Miami Beach, known for the distinctive MiMO architectural style, the Towers of Key Biscayne, and the Towers of Quayside. In 1967, Stephen took over the Florida business, now named the Muss Organization, becoming Miami Beach's single largest landlord.

In 1978, Muss bought the largest hotel in Miami-Dade County, the aging Fontainebleau Hotel (founded by Ben Novack), for $27 million rescuing it from bankruptcy. He injected an additional $100 million into the hotel for improvements and hired the Hilton company to manage it. In 2005, the Muss Organization sold the Fontainebleau to Donald Soffer's Turnberry Associates for $165 million.

Muss was seminal in getting Miami Beach to implement a 3% "bed" tax to rebuild the city's aging infrastructure which included refurbishing and expanding its convention center. He was the president of the Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency. In 1994, he sold the Seacoast Towers for $94 million.

Philanthropy
Muss is the chairman of the Alexander Muss High School in Israel and  honorary chairman of The Lapid, Coalition for High School Age Programs in Israel. Muss has served as Board Chair of Temple Emanu-El and also served on the board of the Miami Art Museum and on the Board of Governors of Haifa University.

Personal life
Muss married the ex-wife of his friend and CenTrust banker David L. Paul, who was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison. His wife Sandra is a daughter of Holocaust survivors and was Board Chair of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach. She is currently a member of the Board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The Musses are members of Temple Emanu-El in Miami Beach.

References

1928 births
Living people
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American Jews
American investors
American philanthropists
American real estate businesspeople
People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
Philanthropists from New York (state)

Stephen Muss


David A. Snowdon (born 1952), is an epidemiologist and professor of neurology, formerly at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include antioxidants and aging, and the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease, especially predictive factors in early life and the role of brain infarction.

Career
He is the director of the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease which is following 678 members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame aged over 75 years. This a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease was initiated in 1986 by Snowdon, then at the University of Minnesota. The homogeneous life style of the nuns makes them an ideal study population. Convent archives have been made available to investigators as a resource on the history of participants.  The study including reviews of autobiographical essays by the nuns upon joining the order, administration of memory and cognitive tests to the nuns (some over 100 years of age), and post-mortem examination of their brains.

The study moved with Snowdon to the University of Kentucky in 1990.  Many of the procedures were based on work by David Wekstein and William Markesbery. They had, in 1989, started a study of age-associated changes in cognition and function in a group of older adults in Kentucky who had agreed to brain donation at death.  Their focus was to understand how changes in the brain could be linked to Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders in advanced age.

The Nun Study was a natural extension of the ongoing work at the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. Their work continues with the help of over 1,000 older Kentuckians who volunteer to be part of this research effort.

Publications
Snowdon's book on the Nun study, Aging with Grace: What the Nun Study Teaches Us About Leading Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Lives, won a Christopher Award in 2002.

Selected publications
 Aging with Grace: What the Nun Study Teaches Us About Leading Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Lives. New York : Bantam Books, 2001.
 Snowdon DA, Nun Study (2003) Healthy aging and dementia: findings from the Nun Study. Ann Intern Med 139: 450-4
 Riley KP, Snowdon DA, Markesbery WR (2002) Alzheimer's neurofibrillary pathology and the spectrum of cognitive function: findings from the Nun Study. Ann Neurol 51: 567-77
 Gosche KM, Mortimer JA, Smith CD, Markesbery WR, Snowdon DA (2002) Hippocampal volume as an index of Alzheimer neuropathology: findings from the Nun Study. Neurology 58: 1476-82
 Snowdon DA, Greiner LH, Mortimer JA, et al. (1997) Brain infarction and the clinical expression of Alzheimer disease. The Nun Study. JAMA 277: 813-7
 Snowdon DA, Kemper SJ, Mortimer JA, et al. (1996) Linguistic ability in early life and cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life: Findings from the Nun Study. JAMA 275: 528-32

See also
 Gerontology

References

External links
 David A. Snowdon at the University of Kentucky

1952 births
Living people
American epidemiologists
American gerontologists
American public health doctors
University of Kentucky faculty

David Snowdon