However I do know these captivating photos are indeed of Tokyo’s G-Cans Project— an underground water draining system to help prevent the overflow of major waterways during the wet typhoon season. Just seeing the sheer size and design of this construction through these photos, which almost look illustrated, is amazing. I can only imagine what construction and upkeep of such an immense and interesting system like this must be like. It’s also a free tourist attraction, presumably only during the dry season.Josh Spear
(Via Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting.)
I visited a huge underground water storage system underneath Istanbul a few years ago, dating from the 4th century!! I will have to look for some photos of that. If I can’t find any on the net, I have some old fashioned prints I can scan.
Here you go – I found this photo on the net:
I was there in 3/2000 and took some not-so-great photos with my old Kodak. They’re at the bottom of this page and there’s one more on this page. Haven’t quite gotten them on Flickr yet… ;)
Cheers,
E
Unbelievable, as the majesty as so much of the past is, and very eerie I would think, it being underground…unexpected, it would make me shiver, like Alice at the bottom of the rabbit hole.
Looks futuristic. As in Total recall or the big hall of the dwarfs in LOTR … Since we had more than half a dozen of floodings from the nearby river, I love every kind of water draining system, cisterns or whatever. If I had enough money, I’d rebuild our whole piece of ground with stuff like this …
The Tokyo project is awesome, what an immense work…monstrous simplicity!..the Istanbul system is exquisite…that so much refined artwork would be put into an underwater system is amazing, and at such an early date…blows me away! Thanks!