The Land of Laft, Offspring of Coral Reefs, and Telo Wells

The village of Laft in ‘Qeshm Island’ is placed on a coral reef, the initial reason for its emergence. The rock slope at the edge of the beach has created a natural space for docking huge barges. This feature alone lets this rural place be targeted, where its economy is highly dependent on the sea. The presence of coral reefs does not afford much farming land to its residents. However, in the highest state of adopting Nature, they can take advantage of this natural depth of water on the beach, which provides a suitable space for docking huge barges. As a result of this happening, Laft village has turned into a crucial trade space and a fishing port on Qeshm Island where the residents profit from this flourishing trade.The huge presence of coral reefs, Marjan, neither provides suitable agricultural land, nor even a flat space for building houses. Therefore, there are small houses in a dense village space. However, the land owner is quite satisfied with this affluence business condition, which is resulting from the natural depth of the water at the bottom of the coral reef, which let them establish a luxurious architecture, as the dominant architecture of Laft is iconic to its wind-catcher, central courtyards, and handling air circulation and the wind flowing in the rooms and courtyards, as a symbol of Qeshm Island, which along with the architecture of Bushehr City and Sana'a, is reminiscent of the ‘Persian Gulf’ and the Gulf of Oman. This advantage is also due to the blessing presence of the coral reef. The coral reef by having natural cavities inside it, besides resisting water force, has a function like a sponge, which store huge amount of water among its tiny saclike cavities. This property, in addition to the existence of possible hidden cavities, provides an indefinite source of water storage. Supposing a barrier between the coral reef and the water salt to prevent its permeation into the depth of the reef, let coral reef to stop water permeation, and the holes in the rock be a good source of water desalination. It is supposed to be the exact happening in Telo wells, somewhere inside the coral reef and on the upper edge of the dense and integrated texture of the village, which is protected by the residents and their persistent culture for ages. The upper third of the coral reef is the watershed area of the Laft region. The monsoon rains falling on the rock are finally trapped inside the rock holes are the handmade water reservoir of the village and penetrated the coral reef through numerous shallow and deep wells to be preserved there. Some of this water is transferred into the reservoir ponds after purification for early use by the residents. The water well once functions as a water reservoir of the village, but in the warm months of the year, the residents draw this water by buckets and ropes, and gradually lead the reserves of tiny coral holes to the original head of the well. The dual function of Telo wells, sometimes as a water reservoir and sometimes as a water well has turned them into the most attractive landscape of the village, along with the coral reefs, as the origin of the Laft area. It is believed that the Laft village is identical to coral reefs and Telo wells. The other manifestations of the village appear in photos and architecture, are arising from these two fundamental stones of the life and survival of the village. This continues only if the water softener system does not disturb this natural ecosystem.