In India, one of the states which suffered a shortage of water in the 10th century, a marvelous architectural idea was invented in the medieval as an answer to perennial water shortage. Thus a stepwell or baoli was discovered and designed. A baoli is a man-made pond which has a series of steps leading to ground level where water is stored. At this time many step wells were made such as Agrasen ki Baoli, Rajon ki Baoli, Gandhak ki Baoli, Firoz Shah Kotla Boli and many others.
According to BBC, the steps of a baoli where 30m going down to the ground, these sophisticated water reservoirs tapped into difficulty to reach underground water tables, providing a year-round water supply to local people in the area. Although the step wells were very important in the medieval but they have been vanishing with time due to increasing population, and movement towards private water sources such as taps and tanks. Today many step wells are neglected and destroyed; others are left to be rubbish dumps. And a large percent of the community nowadays is unaware of their existence.
Despite the abandonment, the step wells are one of most beautiful and amazing architectural design ever happened in the world during the medieval times. For instance, the Agrasen ki baoli is one of the most famous world tourism sites in India. In the old days, these wells were quite useful as it was used for many purposes rather than being only the source of water but also as a place for gatherings.
As reported by Google Arts&Culture, For instance, there were step wells used for drinking water, others were built near mosques and temples for people to bathe and wash before going for worship and the other wells women had a chance to share their livelihood experiences.
