Back to Sunday Photoblogging. I’ve been on hiatus from CT due to some family matters, and others have taken up the photoblogging job. This is the Étang de Montady as seen from the Oppidum d’Ensérune (both near Béziers in Languedoc). Both have Wikipedia entries, so please consult, but the story is that monks constructed this in the 13th century. They drained the swamp/pond by creating a drain at a central point which flows through an underground culvert and the radial ditches that result force the fields into their triangular pattern.
{ 7 comments }
LFC 09.17.17 at 12:52 pm
Interesting, thanks. (And the Wiki entries are worth a look.)
Donald Pruden, Jr. a/k/a The Enemy Combatant 09.17.17 at 1:41 pm
“They drained the swamp/pond by creating a drain at a central point which flows through an underground culvert and the radial ditches that result force the fields into their triangular pattern.”
Who knew that draining the swamp would be an infrastructure project that would also serve as a species of triangulation?
My apologies for that. I am ashamed of myself. It won’t happen again….
Glen Tomkins 09.17.17 at 3:10 pm
You can accept the agricultural cover story if you like, but this place was obviously constructed by or for space aliens. The locals clearly understand this, or they would not have left the nearby ghost town undisturbed for two thousand years.
Theophylact 09.17.17 at 4:13 pm
An amazing sight. Saw that when we were staying in Languedoc. Made me think of pizza.
Alan White 09.17.17 at 9:33 pm
Welcome back to photoblogging, and I hope that you and yours are doing well.
This is a great photo capturing the massiveness of this place. What’s stunning to me is that these medieval monks had the vision to undertake such a project.
bad Jim 09.18.17 at 8:27 am
This is clearly an enormous radio telescope with a more distant focus than Arecibo.
Ingrid Robeyns 09.18.17 at 7:06 pm
spectacular! (and yes, welcome back, we missed you!)
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