Water galleries or "mines"

 

Water galleries were built in order to improve the extraction of water from a source. They were built with dry stone and designed to augment surface area in order to improve water flow to the exterior.

This construction consisted in making a canal, the deeper the better, out of a stone floor and two parallel dry stone walls covered by flagstone or an arch. The outlet for the water was an opening in the retaining wall, which in some cases, was protected by a “cabane”.

In this region, where springs are scarce, these structures are very small, although this does not imply that their construction was any less elaborate.

The items associated with these water galleries, similar to those of wells, are stone canals and basins. Here, there are nearly always uncovered sinks, built by using the dry stone technique and made watertight with a coat of lime.

 

 

Bibliography