The territory of today’s Tuva has survived many bright historical epochs, many changes of civilizations. In the present day traditional understanding, Tuva is a country of nomads. However, it has not always been inhabited by nomadic tribes. A long time ago, a settled, and by all appearances quite well developed civilization thrived here. This civilization left an inheritance to the descendants – a grandiose system of irrigation canals, which covers the entire Tuva with the network of its veins. Millennia ago, people who lived here were settled agriculturalists.  The scale of the work and the skill with which these canals were constructed inspired Tuvan geologist Tatiana Prudnikova to undertake the study of this magnificent phenomenon.