Engeruka

At the foot of the Rift Valley escarpment, Engaruka was once a remarkable farming settlement surrounded by stone-lined fields. Terraced dwellings overlooked an extensive network of channels and cultivated plots. Water and sediment descending from the highlands were directed across the fields, building up fertile ground in a country that could otherwise be dry.

Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, Engaruka's inhabitants constructed and adapted this agricultural landscape over a large area. Floodwater deposited soil behind stone field walls, forming deep accumulations across more than a thousand hectares. Some plots were watered so heavily that their soils resembled those of wet fields. The settlement was eventually abandoned, but its terraces and irrigation works remain evidence of generations of skilled labour.