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by themafia 200 days ago
> relied on the sun shining directly overhead on wells in different cities.

It was just one city actually. The critical piece is that the city's northern latitude was nearly identical to the Earth's angle of axial tilt. Which also means that this shadow phenomenon only occurs during the Summer Solstice.

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/shs-physical-science/x04...