What is this weird circle in Burkina Faso?
September 27, 2011 2:44 PM Subscribe
What is this feature on the Google Map of Burkina Faso? There's more than one.
There's another, too.
I suspect they are some sort of irrigation system, but would love any information or informed guessing.
There's another, too.
I suspect they are some sort of irrigation system, but would love any information or informed guessing.
I agree with Straw...they look like a well or some sort of cistern.
I love Google Maps! I could spend hours looking at how people organize their communities all around the world.
posted by Elly Vortex at 3:29 PM on September 27, 2011
I love Google Maps! I could spend hours looking at how people organize their communities all around the world.
posted by Elly Vortex at 3:29 PM on September 27, 2011
Looks like something is growing around the second one; terraced agriculture around a natural spring that has been enlarged and shaped? Maybe?
posted by BrashTech at 3:30 PM on September 27, 2011
posted by BrashTech at 3:30 PM on September 27, 2011
Looks like something is growing around the second one; terraced agriculture around a natural spring that has been enlarged and shaped
I thought the same thing, but for both of them - I thought I picked out some terracing around the first one. It also looks like the water level in both examples can get higher than where it is in the photo. It also seems like both are fenced off.
It's just a guess, but my thought would be along the lines of BrashTech's notion, that it's either a natural spring that's been widened out or an open-air cistern. at least in the second example, the pool is not the only source of water nearby - there's a village to the south on the banks of a lake and a river to the northeast.
My only criticism of straw's idea is that there's a road going down to the second one, and if you were building a step well you wouldn't necessarily need to put steps all around it, but again, those steps look agricultural.
posted by LionIndex at 3:42 PM on September 27, 2011
I thought the same thing, but for both of them - I thought I picked out some terracing around the first one. It also looks like the water level in both examples can get higher than where it is in the photo. It also seems like both are fenced off.
It's just a guess, but my thought would be along the lines of BrashTech's notion, that it's either a natural spring that's been widened out or an open-air cistern. at least in the second example, the pool is not the only source of water nearby - there's a village to the south on the banks of a lake and a river to the northeast.
My only criticism of straw's idea is that there's a road going down to the second one, and if you were building a step well you wouldn't necessarily need to put steps all around it, but again, those steps look agricultural.
posted by LionIndex at 3:42 PM on September 27, 2011
The nearby town with the blue roofs is Dori in the Sahel Region
posted by Blasdelb at 8:18 PM on September 27, 2011
posted by Blasdelb at 8:18 PM on September 27, 2011
Best answer: It's called a Bouli maraîcher. It's a new way to combine an artificial water reserve and market gardening in Sahelian countries. Here's an article from a burkinabe magazine about the bouli of Dori (all sites in French). (Thanks for the question, btw, I'm an agronomist but I didn't know about this technique)
posted by elgilito at 1:14 AM on September 28, 2011 [6 favorites]
posted by elgilito at 1:14 AM on September 28, 2011 [6 favorites]
Response by poster: Yes! That is great. Thanks so much!
posted by quadrilaterals at 5:23 AM on September 28, 2011
posted by quadrilaterals at 5:23 AM on September 28, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by straw at 2:55 PM on September 27, 2011