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Canals are man-made channels for water.
There are two main types of canals: irrigation canals, which are used for the delivery of water, and waterways, which are transportation canals used for passage of goods and people, often connected to (and sometimes connecting) existing lakes, rivers, or oceans.
This article deals primarily with artificial waterways (i.e. canals built primarily for transportation purposes).
Some canals are part of a waterway which is not entirely artificial. This is usually where a river has been canalised : making it navigable by widening and deepening some parts (by dredging and/or weirs) and "cuts" around the weirs or other difficult sections. Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats, while ship canals allow sea-going ships to travel from one sea or ocean to another, or to an inland port (eg Manchester Ship Canal, Caledonian Canal, Kiel Canal ).
The oldest-known canals were built in Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC, in what is now modern-day Iraq and Syria. The Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan and North India (from circa 2600 BC) had a sophisticated canal irrigation system. Agriculture was practiced on a large scale and an extensive network of canals was used for the purpose of irrigation. Sophisticated irrigation and storage systems were developed, including the reservoirs built at Girnar in 3000BC.[1] In ancient China, large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Warring States (481-221 BC), the longest one of that period being the Hong Gou (Canal of the Wild Geese), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei.[2] By far the longest canal of early medieval times was the Grand Canal of China, still the longest canal in the world today. It is 1794 kilometers (1115 miles) long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang Guang between Beijing and Hangzhou. The project began in 605, although the oldest sections of the canal may have existed since circa 486 BC. Even in its narrowest urban sections it is rarely less than 30 m (100 ft) wide.
Canals are so deeply identified with Venice that many canal cities have been nicknamed "the Venice of..." The city is built on marshy islands, with wooden piles supporting the buildings, so that there is not so much the waterways which are man-made, as the land. The islands have a long history of settlement, and by the 12th century Venice was a powerful city state.
Amsterdam was built in a similar way, with buildings on wooden piles. The pace of draining of fenland and polder in the Low Countries quickened in the 14th century and canalization made the village of Amsterdam a port. It became a city around 1300.
Other famous canal cities include Brugge in Flanders and St Petersburg in Russia.
Canal estates are a form of subdivision popular in cities like Miami, Florida and the Gold Coast, Queensland; the Gold Coast has over 700 km of residential canals. Wetlands are difficult areas upon which to build housing estates, so dredging part of the wetland down to a navigable channel provides fill to build up another part of the wetland above the flood level for houses. Land is built up in a finger pattern that provides a suburban street layout of waterfront housing blocks. This practice is not popular with environmentalists.
In Europe and then in the young United States, inland canals preceded the development of railroads during the earliest phase of the Industrial Revolution; some canals were later drained and used as railroad rights-of-way. Navigable canals reached into previously isolated areas and brought them in touch with the world economy. The Erie Canal, for instance, opened up a connection from the populated Northeast to the fertile Great Plains.
The oldest canal built for industrial purposes in North America is Mother Brook in Dedham, MA. It was constructed in 1639 to provide water power for mills. Lowell, Massachusetts, considered to be "The Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution," has 6 miles of canals, built from around 1790 to 1850, that provided waterpower and a means of transportation for the city.
Competition from the railway network made many canals obsolete for commercial transportation, and many fell into decay.
See also: History of the British canal system
A movement that began in Britain and France to use the early industrial canals for pleasure boats has spurred rehabilitation of stretches of historic canals.
Canals have found another use in the 21st century, as wayleaves for fibre optic telecommunications networks.
<gallery> Image:canal.at.bathampton.arp.jpg|The Kennet and Avon Canal at Bathampton, near Bath, England Image:Small canal - Venice.jpg|Rio de la Verona: a rio or small canal in Venice Image:Kaiserkanal01.jpg|The Grand Canal of China at Suzhou Image:Amsterdamcannel333.JPG| Amsterdam gracht (2007) Image:Calder and hebble.jpg|A picturesque stretch on the Calder and Hebble Navigation, England Image:Pawtucket Canal Flood.jpg|The Pawtucket Canal during a flood of the Merrimack River at Lowell, Massachusetts Image:Canal_system_in_Lowell,_Massachusetts.jpg|Map of Lowell's power canal system Image:Wikipediacanal.jpg|The Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal (2004) Image:TucCanal.JPG|An irrigation canal outside of Tucumcari, New Mexico </gallery>
For a time in the early 20th century, it was believed that there were many canals on Mars.
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