An irrigation ditch or water channel used to distribute water for agricultural purposes, especially in Spain and the Americas.
From Spanish 'acequia,' derived from Arabic 'as-sāqiya' (the water channel). The word traveled from the Islamic world to Spain during the medieval period, then spread to Spanish colonies in the Americas.
Acequias are the unsung infrastructure of the American Southwest—Spanish colonial engineers built a sophisticated water system inherited from Islamic irrigation technology, and many acequias in New Mexico and California still function after 400+ years.
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