Not long after, I saw a minuscule thing coming to me from that direction; I thought it was a bird of some kind. Strange enough, the bird came to me so abruptly that I heard its sound only after it passed me… Guess what? It was not a bird; it was a fighter jet. This time, I knew where to look, and I followed it for the short while it played pick-a-boo with me.

The following day, mom took me to the celebration arena for a national day. I couldn’t believe my eyes, everywhere was full of fighter jets; but my eyes looked for the one that mesmerized me the day before. And, it was standing right there, waiting for me to come. I approached it with respectful steps, and carefully touched it. It was so cold and tough, yet so beautiful. That day, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. The smell of the jet fuel coming from the engines was so powerful that even I could fly with that kind of a drink.

“Hey; come here” I heard someone calling me. There was really nobody around. “Follow the sharp smell, come on here,” insisted the voice. Was I daydreaming, or had I been poisoned by the jet fuel and lost my conscience? Yeah, yeah, the voice was coming from the rear-end of the engine. It was the nozzle that was talking to me.

The moment I realized who was talking to me, I found myself in the circular, hollow structure of the nozzle. I was too nervous and surprised at first, but after a moment of looking around admiringly, I spoke with the words: “I know the inferno fire that you are exhausting. Isn’t it beautiful? You are so powerful. You are the one that is powering this beauty in the sky.”

The nozzle was not happy to hear my words of flattery. “Hey little boy, you know something, but you don’t know everything. Yes, it is true that I am exhausting that violent river of gas. You are right that this stormy exhaust is in the heart of this beauty in the sky. But you have got to learn more. I am only a solid duct that is accelerating what comes into me. I have no power to compress that humongous amount of air into a volume as small as a bird’s nest. I am completely unable to heat up the air to inferno level. And, the beauty in the sky is not taken up there by me either.”

I was totally disappointed and frustrated by the nozzle. I had thought for an instant that it was my hero; but now, my dreams were destroyed. I felt all alone in a desert. The nozzle must have realized my situation, so it picked up again: “Come on. I am going to introduce you to the unseen heroes behind our mysterious beauty. I am going to show you the inside.”

I was truly perplexed. What else could be more mysterious than a speaking nozzle? The voice of the nozzle slowly diffused into the deep and dark hallway into the engine, and I followed it. Soon, I came by long towers that had a nicely curved shape. As soon as I stepped near them, the floor that the towers were built on started moving. In the midst of this earthquake and a blinding darkness, I could faintly see another row of towers that were stagnant. I threw myself towards them. As I was dealing with my horrified and troubled soul, I heard a thunderous voice that reverberated everywhere:

“How nice to see you here, Adam!” I was doubly shocked. Not only was this unseen thing talking to me, but it also knew my name. “Do you know me?” I replied. “How could I miss your glittering eyes fixed at us whenever we pass over you? I am the turbine, one of the unseen heroes. I am the one that powers the compressors that squeeze the air. I am the one that faces the hot air before it goes into the nozzle.”

Wow, this was the man; this was the legendary hero behind the beauty in the sky. I looked at its towers that displayed nobility and their curved surfaces that embodied beauty. As I was losing myself in admiration, I heard the voice again:

“These are the eyes that I have been seeing every time we passed over you. But I have to tell you something. What you are looking for is not me either, because I cannot create the hot air that energizes everything, including me. Despite the beauties and power embodied in me, I am not the essence that bears the real beauty you are looking for.”

What was that supposed to mean? First the nozzle, now the turbine; every time, I am being attracted, and then I am left alone with a sense of deception. Are these heroes making fun of my admiration of their beauty? If so, they don’t deserve my admiration anymore; if not, then why am I having this feeling of deception? Is it wrong to attribute hero status to something?

Lost in feelings and thoughts like these, I left the turbine, and proceeded further into the darkness. Not only didn’t I know where I was, but also I had no means to determine my whereabouts. In total silence and darkness, I sat at a place that felt like a smooth and large room. Suddenly, a wind started blowing with growing speed, and a constant noise occupied everywhere. I was alarmed and sought somewhere to cling to. With the help of lightning that seemed to come out of nowhere, I saw a cavity that looked safe. After a challenging crawl, I was there. Then, a second lightning came and everywhere burst into fires. As if winds from the hell were gushing out. My jaw dropped down, I stared at this miraculous display of fire.

“Welcome, finally you are here,” told a voice that was distinctly heard despite the violent storm. I felt like I am being driven through a scenario so that where ever I enter, I experience things that I was meant to. “Am I the hero of this scenario?”, I asked myself inside, and laughed at the idea. Upon seeing so many extraordinary things, my awe of the strange things was veiled with habituation. So, I couldn’t pay the respect that was due the voice I heard. Maybe because of this, I received a kick from behind, and I had to struggle against the winds of fire to get back to my seat where I was safe and comfortable.

“Hello, are you still there?” I asked. “Can you tell me where I am?” That distinct voice appeared again in my ears: “Indeed, I am here, but you weren’t!” I bowed my head with shame. Having hurt the only one that could help me in this situation was as foolish as it could be. “And I was with you all along from the start.” What was this? I didn’t know whether to feel ashamed because of my selfish and pragmatic sense of respect, or to burst into a thousand pieces for not having recognized the one who has been with me all along?

“This is as far as you can go in this story. You are in the place where the energy that empowers everything is revealed. It is the heart of the beauty that you have been admiring.” After a second of silence, “Did you find what you were looking for?” asked the voice. I had seen strange things, but none of them had satisfied my heart nor quenched my curiosity. A sad face was my response to the question, but I didn’t know if the voice could see my face. Apparently it did, so that it directed me to another place. “You see this violent fire going on, would you like to fly away with it?” Was this guy crazy? How in the world could I survive in fire? “Well then, there are two ways to get out of here. Either you go along the fire back to where you came from. Or, if you are not able to do so, you go forward.”

With that directive, I started crawling towards the front, into the strong wind. I came across a thing similar to the turbine, and then another hallway similar to the nozzle. At first I was puzzled, because I had seen the same things that I had seen on my way previously. Had I made a mistake and proceeded backwards? That mustn’t be the case, since I had moved away from the fire.

After this stupefying similarity, I was at the mouth of the cave where everything starts. I was able to see the wings too. But now, the aircraft was moving. All of the storm that was going on inside was for accelerating. The force of the acceleration was so strong that I slipped from where I was clinging, and found myself stuck at the beautiful front curve of the wing. Strange enough, the same voice welcomed me again: “Finally you are here.” I didn’t know whether to reply to it or to lose myself while watching the beauty of the aircraft as it soared into the air with an ever increasing speed. It definitely felt like the divers who hear that beautiful voice when they go deeper than they should. I could not resist melting my body in the excitement of the maneuvers. After a while, we were hundreds of meters above where we had started. Now, the aircraft was cruising, and despite the rareness of the experience, it felt like sitting in the living room. With the steadiness of my state, I found myself emerging from the depths of excitement.

“Have you found the beauty you are looking for?” asked the voice again, to which I said yes. “Where do you think that beauty is coming from? From the engines or from the wings?” That question was most unexpected. The engine itself was not able to fly, it was only able to create a strong push. The wings were only beautiful. They did not actively do anything. They only stood there in the wind, and then, lift was there. Without the air, the wings would not create anything. As for the air, we are completely sunken in it, let alone flying. “I don’t know where the beauty is coming from. There seems to be something missing in the ingredients that created the beauty of flight. None of the ingredients seems to originate it. It looks like you put the engine, the wings and the air in the pot, and suddenly something that you did not put comes into being.”

“But you did not realize this point until you made this journey, despite that you have been witnessing the same beauty all along. “

Why was that the case? Why did I have to make this incredible journey in order to become aware of this uncertainty in the source of beauty?

“When you are not actually in a journey like this, you take all the mysteries for granted, because you consider them natural, ordinary. But once you are in the journey, you realize something different that exists neither in you nor in the things you come across. It is as if somebody is tracking what is going on, and whenever the necessary ingredients are there, he secretly adds the missing spice into it at the right amount. And, then? Behold the beauty!”

On the face of the Earth, mountain regions are defined as areas more than 1000 m in elevation. Although mountains cover only 27% of the total land area of the planet, the percentage of the world population who are dependant on the mountains is much larger. In terms of water dependency, about 70% of the population uses water originated in the mountains. This ratio becomes close to 100% in arid regions. Interestingly, the water towers of the world are generally located in the arid regions of the world. It is not unusual to see an arid lowland region with a big river crossing it. These regions are usually connected to a nearby mountain from which the river originated. The significance of the mountains is mentioned in the Bible as the following: “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land” (Psalm 95:3-5).

All great rivers of the world originate in mountains. For example, the arid region of Central Asia is watered by the Tarek, Amu Darya, and Tarim Rivers. All of the big rivers of China and India originate in Tibet. Pakistan is dependant on the Indus River. Asia Minor and Northern Arabian Peninsula are supplied by Euphrates and Tigris Rivers while Northern Africa is supplied by Nile River. All Australian waters are supplied by rivers originating from eastern highlands, and Europe is supplied by the Po, Rhine, and Tiber Rivers, which originate in mountainous areas. This makes mountain water strategically important in these areas, and in fact, some countries prefer to keep their need of mountain water a secret!

Here it is worth discussing the global water cycle in order to understand the peculiar role of the mountains. All of the precipitation onto land comes from evaporation on land and oceans. A significant portion of the land precipitation goes back to seas and oceans via river discharge every year. And the main source of fresh water for humans and other living organisms comes from rivers. For low-land precipitation (as opposed to mountain precipitation) the discharge happens rather quickly, within weeks. Therefore, humans build dams in order keep the water for longer periods of time. Another longer term solution to keep more water on land is planting trees, which benefits not only humans but all other living creatures!

For mountains, the water cycle works quite differently. Since the mountains are in high elevations, precipitation starts early in the late fall and continues until the end of spring. The river discharge does not begin until early summer. Especially in arid regions, the low-land discharge mostly diminishes by early spring, and no predictions can be made as to how arid the coming summer will be. On the other hand, because of lower temperatures in the mountains, evaporation is also minimal, which makes them efficient natural storages. At the end of spring when the lowland precipitation starts to diminish, the mountain water discharge begins in a steady manner and continues during the entire summer season. When we look at the yearly usage of water even in a humid region like Europe, more than 50% of the water during the hottest and driest months of June and July is released from the Alps. This percentage is more than 95% in arid regions of the world, such as Mesopotamia and North Africa. The Holy Quran mentions the storage of bounties, including water, explicitly as the following: “There is not a thing but the stores (for its life and sustenance) are with Us, and We do not send it down except in due, determined measure. And we send the winds to fertilize; and so We send down water from the sky, and give it to you to drink; it is not you who are the keepers of its stores” (15/21-22).

Since lowland water discharge is mainly controlled by precipitation, it is also unpredictable and rather quick. This is particularly inconvenient for farmers who have to make business plans for the entire of the year ahead of time. The knowledge of yearly precipitation is vital for farmers to make reliable investments. In lowland areas, prediction of water distribution months in advance is very difficult, and almost impossible before it actually precipitates! (In fact, an area of geological sciences is devoted to forecasting precipitation. This is also important for preventing causalities in potential floods). On the other hand, mountain discharge offers stability during the year, which makes life much easier for farmers.

Mountains are generally seen in our distant horizons of our living areas with their magnificence and silence. They have many benefits that we may or may not be aware of. Indeed they are the water towers of the world.

H. Huseyin Erdem is an earth scientist living in the USA.

Note

1. More discussion on this topic may be found in The Risale-i Nur Collection (e.g., see The Words, 33rd Word) by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi.

References

1. Wiegandt, Ellen (Ed.), Mountains: Sources of Water, Sources of Knowledge, The Netherlands: Springer, 2009.
2. B. Messerli and J.D. Ives (Ed’s), Mountains of the World: A Global Priority, Parthenon Pub., 1997.