Travel to Pakistan: Mills of Swat

A look at the water-driven grain mills of Swat, a former princely state west of the Indus Valley.

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The soft earth, ready for planting.

In the midst of elaborately terraced slopes, one of many grain mills can be seen--not only the millhouse, but also the tailrace, the penstock bringing water into the millhouse, and the contour line of the channel bringing water to the penstock.

Channel approaching the millhouse but wasting through an escape back to the river.

On another day, the mill was open, and the stone was spinning fast as the boy funneled corn down to it.

A customer waits for his grain to be milled.

A mill near Miandam, on the east slope of the Shangla Pass. At high water, two escapes were open, yet water was overflowing the channel banks.