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!
Moray - Peru photo by Kenneth Moore.

Rice terraces in Sapa, Vietnam.

Edited to try to replace photos that disappeared....

Judith Browning wrote: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 came up with a similar arrangement, but for dry desert, with trees......just started my first experiments
I haven't read the articles about the above pits is Spain, but I'm guessing they work off of dew/condensation to some degree.
I'm just trying to work off of rainwater.    I need my seedlings at the main house to germinate so I can get more of these started.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB5n8TCpPfh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

My "water lens" design is more shallow.

They are about 7 meters in diameter, and about 200-300mm deep in the center.
I'm using them where the ground is nearly flat.
I actually let the spoil pile up a protective berm so the pits don't get completely washed out/filled in during a freak flood/storm event.
I just want the water that land on the circle.

Its so flat here, the water just kind ponds, sinks in 2", and then evaporates immediately.

Its freaky how well it works,; used a garden hose with a sprinkler to simulate a light rain/sprinkling.
The 3-D convex nature of the ground really amplifies sheeting of the water toward the center.

Trying 10 at first.   If successful ...phase 2 is going to be 50-100 units.

Trying to figure out what to grow treewise still for phase 2.
200-250mm of annual rainfall.  Most of which comes within 2 months of the summer, and 2 months of the winter.