I recently stumbled upon an article filled with gorgeous photographs of ancient stepwells.  I’m so overwhelmed with these spectacular stepwells that I had to share here on Filthy’s blog.

A stepwell is exactly what it sounds like: steps down to a well. The earliest stepwells date back to about 600 AD and were developed in India as a way to access water dry during the dry months.

Many of these functional structures were commissioned by wealthy or powerful philanthropists (nearly a fourth of whom were said to be women) as spiritual, earthbound bastions built to last for an eternity.

How stunning are these pieces of forgotten architecture and art?
Could you imagine carrying a buckets of water up all those stairs?
For more information on India’s forgotten stepwells, check out the sources:  Wiki, This Is Colossal & Honestly WTF