Kareh Angoori, or the “grape well,” is one of the most valuable legacies of Iran’s agricultural history. It is an ancient, sophisticated, and highly ingenious method of rain-fed grape production that remained in use around the city of Bushehr until the 1350s in the Iranian calendar. This innovative technology and body of indigenous horticultural knowledge dates back to the Sasanian era.
Kareh Angoori reflects the ingenuity of Iran’s ancestors in adapting to their surroundings and overcoming climatic and natural constraints to produce grapes economically using rainwater. It is a striking example of the use of stone in agriculture—and a golden chapter in the story of stone, hardship, and treasure.
The word kareh means a circular stone wall or enclosure built around a vineyard. This vineyard is therefore known as Kareh Angoori because it is surrounded by a dry-stone wall.
In this method, grapes are planted and cultivated within a circular enclosure. The vines grow at the bottom of a hand-dug pit—essentially an underground chamber or cistern—and their roots remain inside the pit, away from direct sunlight. Rainwater is collected from the surrounding land and stored in the pit, then used to meet the vines’ water needs throughout the year.
Ibn Balkhi, in his well-known and authoritative Farsnameh, written before 510 AH (495 SH; 1116 CE), described the widespread use of the Sangchāl cultivation method along the Persian Gulf coast more than 900 years ago. The method was used to contend with scorching heat, water scarcity, and drought.
With construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant by the Germans beginning in 1354 SH (1975–76), at the order of the Pahlavi government, the extensive Kareh Angoori vineyards also began to decline and were converted to urban and industrial uses.
The development of military bases, an airport, the nuclear power plant, free-trade zones, and urban and residential areas has erased not only the Kareh Angoori vineyards but also the surrounding agricultural land. Today, only a small number of these grape-growing sites remain within the Bushehr nuclear facility complex. In addition, the nearby villages of Helileh and Bandargah have been required to leave the area and relocate, although this relocation has not yet taken place.