I see this a lot in Afghanistan

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[bitchen frizzy]

They don't look like bomb craters. If you follow the chain of holes on your link northward, you'll see it meander, and join other meandering chains, and to the NNE there's even a long trench instead of a hole. Not one hole coincides with the location of the a structure, and there's even one hole that's squared on one side where a wall has been built. That suggests that the structures are built to account for the holes, or vice versa, and the trench suggests artificial construction.

My wholly amateur conclusion: These are shallow excavations: probably some sort of mining.

[RSColonel_131st]

It looks damn weird.

[dieseltaylor]

Qanat

I almost felt like putting the answer before looking at the picture. : )

[dieseltaylor]

Qanats used in conjunction with a wind tower can provide cooling as well as a water supply. A wind tower is a chimney-like structure positioned above the house to catch the prevailing wind. The tower catches the wind, driving a hot, dry breeze into the house; the flow of the incoming air is then directed across the vertical shaft from the qanat. The air flow across the vertical shaft opening creates a lower pressure (see Bernoulli effect) and draws cool air up from the qanat tunnel, mixing with it. The air from the qanat was drawn into the tunnel at some distance away and is cooled both by contact with the cool tunnel walls/water and by the giving up latent heat of evaporation as water evaporates into the air stream. In dry desert climates this can result in a greater than 15°C reduction in the air temperature coming from the qanat; the mixed air still feels dry, so the basement is cool and only comfortably moist (not damp). Wind tower and qanat cooling have been used in desert climates for over 1000 years.[7]

From the Wiki article. I had not realised that the Spaniards had taken the idea to South America so the concept exists under one name or another from China westwards to South America.

It is sad to see such ancient cunning falling into disrepair in Afghanistan

[bitchen frizzy]

Qanats. Cool. I thought qanats were cisterns or something. Never knew they were so complicated until I read the wiki article. Learned something new.

The holes are indeed mineshafts, and the article says that from the air they "resemble bomb craters."

They are engineering marvels, and it is sad to see them go. Article says they're a major PITA to build and maintain, and modern water wells are replacing them.

[Stalins Organ]

Are these the irrigation systems that fell into disrepair when the Mongols killed an awful lot of people throughout the region?

supposedly the early Mongol rulers/generals saw no use for peasant farmers as they were not part of a nomad economy, so happily removed them for anything they thought they needed labour for, or killed them in vast numbers for resistance to the conquest, etc.

As a result manpower levels apparently dropped to such a degree that underground water channels could nto be maintained, and large areas lost fertility & became deserts - Persia, Afghanistan & Iraq are normally the areas mentioned in conjunction with this IIRC.

Later Mongol rulers in the area had a better appreciation for settled agriculture - but it was too late for many areas by then.

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