Terraced vineyards near Lausanne

The Incan terraces at Písac are still used today.

Abstract pattern of terrace rice fields in Yunnan Province, southern China.

In agriculture, a terrace is a leveled section of a hilly cultivated area, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid run-off of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance. The human landscapes of rice cultivation in terraces that follow the natural contours of the escarpments like contour plowing is a classic feature of the island of Bali. In Peru, the Inca made use of otherwise unusable slopes by dry walling to create terraces. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 564 KB) Terraced vineyards in Switzerland. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 564 KB) Terraced vineyards in Switzerland. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1264, 1578 KB) Summary Intihuatana ruins with agricultural terraces below at Písac, Peru. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1264, 1578 KB) Summary Intihuatana ruins with agricultural terraces below at Písac, Peru. ... QAllaqasa, the citadel. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (900x600, 276 KB) Summary Terrace rice field in Yunnan Province, China. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (900x600, 276 KB) Summary Terrace rice field in Yunnan Province, China. ... Yunnan (Simplified Chinese: 云南; Traditional Chinese: 雲南; Hanyu pinyin: ) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the far southwestern corner of the country. ... A hill in Hungary with a hillside vintage garden For the landform that extends less than 600 metres above the surrounding terrain and that is smaller than a mountain, see the mountain article. ... Sheep pasture with macroscale erosion, Australia Soil conservation is a set of management strategies for prevention of soil being eroded from the earth’s mantle or becoming chemically altered by overuse, salinization, acidification, or other chemical soil contamination. ... High-altitude aerial view of irrigation in the Heart of the Sahara (, ) Irrigation (in agriculture) is the replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops. ... Species Oryza glaberrima Oryza sativa Rice refers to two species (Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima) of grass, native to tropical and subtropical southeastern Asia and to Africa, which together provide more than one fifth of the calories consumed by humans. ... Contour plowing, Pennsylvania, 1938 Contour plowing or contour farming is the farming practice of plowing across a slope following its contours. ... Bali is an Indonesian island located at , , one of the Lesser Sunda Islands. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... Drywall, the ubiquitous interior building material. ...

This form of land use is prevalent in many countries, and is used for crops requiring a lot of water, such as rice. Terraces are also easier for both mechanical and manual sowing and harvesting than a steep slope would be.

Natural terracing, the result of small-scale erosion, is formed where cattle are grazed for long periods on steep sloping pasture. Sometimes, as a Glastonbury Tor, the result is regular enough to give an impression of archaeological artifacts. Glastonbury Tor is a high teardrop-shaped hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, with its only standing architectural feature the roofless St Michaels Tower of the former church. ... I archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. ...

From its origins in agriculture the practice of formally terracing a sloping site evolved in gardening. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon could have been built on an artificial mountain with stepped terraces like those on a ziggurat. At the seaside Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, the villa gardens of Julius Caesar's father-in-law fell away giving pleasant and varied views of the Bay of Naples. In gardening, a terrace is an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a prospect. ... Gardens of Semiramis, 20th century interpretation The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis) and the walls of Babylon (present-day Iraq) were considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. ... Dur-Untash, or Choqa zanbil, built in 13th century BC by Untash Napirisha, is one of the worlds best preserved ziggurats. ... The Villa of the Papyri is an enormous private house of ancient Herculaneum owned by Julius Caesars father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, and first excavated in 1765 by Karl Weber. ... Herculaneum (in modern Italian formerly Resina, but since 1969 Ercolano) was an ancient Roman town of the Italian region of Campania. ...

Terraces were also methods of soil conservation farming for the Inca. They used a system of canals and aqueducts, and made the water flow through dry land and helped them be fertile lands. Sheep pasture with macroscale erosion, Australia Soil conservation is a set of management strategies for prevention of soil being eroded from the earth’s mantle or becoming chemically altered by overuse, salinization, acidification, or other chemical soil contamination. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... The Canal du Midi in Toulouse, France. ... Pont du Gard, France, a Roman aqueduct built circa 19 BC. It is one of Frances top tourist attractions and a World Heritage Site. ...

The Inca constructed the terraces on the slopes of mountains. They cut step-like ledges into the mountainside, so they could be used as field, where they planted crops. Using terraces also stopped the rain from washing away the soil. This technique was so successful, it is still used in the Andes Mountains.

In old English, a terrace was also called a lynch and there is a fine example of a Lynch Mill in Lyme Regis, for which the water arrives via a river ducted along a terrace. This set-up was used in steeply hilly areas in the UK. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Lynch may be: John Lynch (fl. ... Location within the British Isles The Cobb, with boats grounded in the harbour at low tide. ...