Vineyards sit in moon-like craters on a volcano in Lanzarote (and other labor intensive earthworks)

I wonder if this has been posted before? This showed up in my 'art' feed this morning and I had to search for more information...here are a few links...Interesting micro climate possibilities although off into mono-cropping for sure.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24232272-500-vineyards-sit-in-moon-like-craters-on-a-volcano-in-lanzarote/
https://www.thetravelblogs.com/lanzarote-wineries-vineyards-you-can-visit/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanzarote

Vineyards sit in moon-like craters on a volcano in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain.
Vineyards on Lanzarote date from the mid-18th century, following six years of volcanic eruptions that blanketed the island in black ash. Semicircles of dry-stone walling protect the vines from the relentless wind on Lanzarote and a single vine is planted in a fairly deep depression behind each wall. The vine is never watered. With virtually no rain it catches what little rain there is, but condensation forms in these depressions overnight as the air temperature cools the heated volcanic soils and this provides most of the vine’s water requirements. It seems a desperately labour-intensive way of farming but they have done it this way for generations.

be sure to find the vehicles in the photo for scale.

I love it!

I'm guessing that any pest that crawls along the ground will not like this environment. And if they did, a bird would seize the opportunity for a defenseless meal. It does look labor-intensive, but I'm guessing that this is a case of a whole lot of space and nowhere to go, so people probably have some time on their hands.

Wow! That is awesome!

The amount of work that this represents is pretty crazy.  They must have dug those using a machine of some sort, yes?  If those were hand dug, that's crazy.

Even with an excavator, I can't imagine how many years it took to dig all those "craters".

Marco Banks wrote:The amount of work that this represents is pretty crazy.  They must have dug those using a machine of some sort, yes?  If those were hand dug, that's crazy.

Even with an excavator, I can't imagine how many years it took to dig all those "craters".

The article says

 vineyards on Lanzarote date from the mid-18th century, following six years of volcanic eruptions that blanketed the island in black ash.

Farmers on the arid island began to hollow out pits in the volcanic ash …

So, I think they must have been done by hand, maybe with some animal power also?
Many people and steady work...amazing what has been done around the world and has stood the test of time.
Terracing has always amazed me, especially after doing just a very few by hand.

Japan's terraced rice fields

Pretty stunning.

And both of those systems (the volcanic pits as well as the terraces you shared in photo) would require annual maintenance or they would deteriorate within just a few years.  So each of these shows a commitment that goes back many many years --- centuries even --- to maintain what they'd built.

It's surprising that somewhere down through the years, people didn't say "This is just too hard.  We're done."  While the world is filled with examples of societies that collapsed due to ecosystem failure (Easter Island, the ancient civilization of the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, etc.), these systems and the societies that depend upon them continue on year after year.  Again, stunning.  Thanks for sharing those photos.

Marco, yes, just absolutely amazing!
Here's a couple more pictures that I'm lifting from my fb feed so they may disappear in awhile?
Moray - Peru photo by Kenneth Moore.


Rice terraces in Sapa, Vietnam.