Plenty of rainfall fed streams in North Africa and the Middle East until the days when the qanat (canal) system of irrigation was begun, subterranean almost horizontal canals dug from water tables at the base of alluvial fans to then flow down to empty into the plains nearby. The subterranean canal digging for irrigation was begun circa 1000 b. c. (when cistern drip irrigation was begun in Israel), so it was not needed for many centuries previously, because the Ice Age ended circa 1500 b. c. and by 1000 b. c. they were greatly in need of water!
