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Engaruka
is an abandoned system of ruins in the
Great Rift Valley of northern
Tanzania, famed for its irrigation and
cultivation system. It is considered one of the
most important Tanzanian
archaeological sites.
The Site
Sometime in the 15th century, an
Iron Age farmer community with a large
continuous village area on the footslopes of the
Rift Valley escarpment, housing several thousand
people developed an intricate irrigation and
cultivation system, involving a stone-block
canal channeling water from the "Crater
Highlands" rift escarpment to stonelined
cultivation terraces. Measures were taken to
prevent soil erosion and the fertility of the
plots was increased by using the manure of stall
fed cattle. For an unknown reason Engaruka was
abandoned at latest in mid 1800s. The site still
poses many questions, including the identity of
the founders, how they developed such an
ingenious farming system, and why they left. The
site has been linked to the
Sonjo, a people living some 60 miles to the
northwest known for their use of irrigation
systems in agriculture and similar terraced
village sites. New studies have revealed lot of
unknown perspectives of the past of Engaruka,
for example the
Middle Stone Age and
Neolithic Stone Age occupation history of
the area.
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