Molenstraat Canal

Creatures crawl in and out of water and shade along the banks of this splendid little canal as the occasional boat bargains its way through the narrow open passageway winding over the earth's surface. There is an affectionate calm here, which seems to inspire some small state of sleepiness upon every passerby. Perhaps you can set your blanket close to shore and snooze the day away with the rest of the area's critters. The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC, in what is now modern day Iraq and Syria. The Indus Valley Civilization, in Pakistan and North India, (circa 2600 BC) had sophisticated irrigation and storage systems developed, including the reservoirs built at Girnar in 3000 BC. In Egypt, canals date back at least to the time of Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2283 BC), who ordered a canal built to bypass the cataract on the Nile near Aswan. 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. By far the longest canal was the Grand Canal of China, still the longest canal in the world today. It is 1,794 kilometres (1,115 mi) long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang Guang between Beijing and Hangzhou. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=117482