#Roman aqueduct

[sherrylephotography]

@sherrylephotography 5/23

Segovia, Spain, would be second best of the cities that I visited on our vacation for me. Because of how impressive and well preserved this Roman aqueduct is in the old town of Segovia, it is a must see sight. This enormous aqueduct was built around c. 50 BC.

[wgm-beautiful-world]

PONT DU GARD

[blueiscoool]

Ancient Roman Pipelines Discovered in Crete

Ongoing construction work on a new highway on the island of Crete revealed parts of an ancient water transport pipeline built during the period of Roman rule on the island.

The archaeological discovery reportedly consists of a water transport pipe that was part of the Roman aqueduct of Hersonissos.

Aqueducts were an essential element of Roman infrastructure across the empire, including in ancient Greece. They ensured the availability of fresh water in densely populated urban areas where demand was high.

Roman aqueduct discovered in Crete

Manolis Makrakis, the head of the Directorate of Primary Education of Lasithi, spoke at length about the discovery of parts of the Roman aqueduct on Crete.

“The section of the pipeline is located 5 km south of the national hub of Hersonissos and came to light, as part of the works for the opening of the road that will connect BOAK with the airport of Kastelli,” said Makrakis.

“The pipeline carried water from Kalo Chorio and Krasi to the Peninsula. It consists of two parts, an open (groove) width of approx. 40cm and a clay (closed) one with a diameter of approx. 25cm. We are waiting for more information from the archaeological service,” he added.

Historical context

Makrakis, who authored the book Story of Crete, spoke at length about the history of Roman aqueducts and water transport pipelines on the island during antiquity.

Quoting an extract from the book, Makrakis explained “The aqueduct of Hersonissos was a great work of the Roman era. The Romans were leaders in similar projects. Because the morphology of the land consists of ups and downs, they made the necessary works with the water bridges so that the water flows smoothly in the groove above the bridges. In many places, this groove was supported by wall constructions.”

“Its length was 14km, it took the water from two sources located at a great distance from each other,” the author continued. “The first source was located at the “Leontari” location in Krasi, while the second one was 3 meters south of the tap of the community reservoir of Kalos Horiou Pediados.”

“Then the two pipelines joined into one that ended in the Peninsula. The transport capacity of the pipeline was twice that of Lyktos. The pipeline passed through gullies, ravines and steep (inclined) slopes), through the uneven surfaces of the mountains and ended at the Peninsula.”

“The water of the pipeline was collected in a very large tank located on a hill south of the Port of Hersonissos at the “Palatia” location. This covered vaulted tank was 58m long, 22m wide, and 5.5m deep. The 4.5m underground section was carved out of natural rock. The thickness of the western walls was 1.60m.”

The Romans ruled Crete from 67 BC and they developed infrastructure such as aqueducts in and around the island’s pre-existing ancient Greek cities.

By Alexander Gale.

[the-spirit-of-yore]

Pont du Gard, Région Occitanie, France

[martyschoenleber]

What to Do When You are Under Attack

Isaiah 36-37 The nation is under attack. A powerful enemy has announced his intention to destroy Israel and mocked all attempts to defend the nation or even look for help. The nation’s doom is sure, inevitable, so they would have Israel believe. You can read it all in Isaiah 36. Now the question is what to do. What do you do when you are under attack? King Hezekiah gives us a model in chapter…

[ancientrome]

[ancientromebuildings]

Aqua Claudia

* Aqueduct park, Rome

* Photo by James Anderson

Attribution: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

[sir20]

Aqueduc Saint-Clément, Montpellier by sir20

[curioscurio]

my favorite part of the Voynich Manuscript is this little nymph bathing in a pitcher plant and making a rainbow with the water spray

[illustratus]

View of the Campagna with Roman Aqueduct

by Edmund Hottenroth

[rabbitcruiser]

Forest (No. 96)

Pont du Gard, F

[blueiscoool]

Vast Subterranean Aqueduct in Naples Once 'Served Elite Roman Villas'

Once played in by local children, a vast tunnel that goes through a hill in Naples, Italy, is actually a Roman aqueduct.

Forty years ago, when children in Naples were playing in caves and tunnels under the hill of Posillipo in Italy, they didn't know their playground was actually a Roman aqueduct. When they shared their memories with archaeological authorities recently, it kicked off an exploration of one of the longest, most mysterious examples of ancient water infrastructure in the Roman world.

Rome's famous aqueducts supplied water for baths, drinking, public fountains and more. Built during a period of about half a millennium (roughly 300 B.C. to A.D. 200), aqueducts around the former Roman Empire are highly recognizable today thanks to their multitiered arched structure. But this marvel of ancient architecture represents only a small fraction of the actual water system; the vast majority of the infrastructure is still underground.

Outside of Rome, subterranean aqueducts and their paths are much less understood. This knowledge gap included the newly investigated Aqua Augusta (opens in new tab), also called the Serino aqueduct, which was built between 30 B.C. and 20 B.C. to connect luxury villas and suburban outposts in the Bay of Naples. Circling Naples and running down to the ancient vacation destination of Pompeii, the Aqua Augusta is known to have covered at least 87 miles (140 kilometers), bringing water to people all along the coast as well as inland.

But the complex Aqua Augusta has barely been explored by researchers, making it the least-documented aqueduct in the Roman world. New discoveries earlier this month by the Cocceius Association (opens in new tab), a nonprofit group that engages in speleo-archaeological work, are bringing this fascinating aqueduct to light.

Thanks to reports from locals who used to explore the tunnels as kids, association members found a branch of the aqueduct that carried drinking water to the hill of Posillipo and to the crescent-shaped island of Nisida (opens in new tab). So far, around 2,100 feet (650 meters) of the excellently preserved aqueduct has been found, making it the longest known segment of the Aqua Augusta.

Graziano Ferrari (opens in new tab), president of the Cocceius Association, said in an email that "the Augusta channel runs quite near to the surface, so the inner air is good, and strong breezes often run in the passages." Exploring the aqueduct requires considerable caving experience, though. Speleologists' most difficult challenge in exploring the tunnel was to circumvent the tangle of thorns at one entrance.

"Luckily, the caving suits are quite thornproof," he said. "After succeeding in entering the channel, we met normal caving challenges — some sections where you have to crawl on all fours or squeeze through."

In a new report (opens in new tab), Ferrari and Cocceius Association Vice President Raffaella Lamagna (opens in new tab) list several scientific studies that can be done now that this stretch of aqueduct has been found. Specifically, they will be able to calculate the ancient water flow with high precision, to learn more about the eruptive sequences that formed the hill of Posillipo, and to study the mineral deposits on the walls of the aqueduct.

Rabun Taylor (opens in new tab), a professor of classics at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the report, said in an email that the newly discovered aqueduct section is interesting because it is "actually a byway that served elite Roman villas, not a city. Multiple demands on this single water source stretched it very thin, requiring careful maintenance and strict rationing."

Taylor, an expert on Roman aqueducts, also said the new find "may be able to tell us a lot about the local climate over hundreds of years when the water was flowing." This insight is possible thanks to a thick deposit of lime, a calcium-rich mineral that "accumulates annually like tree rings and can be analyzed isotopically as a proxy for temperature and rainfall," he explained.

Ferrari, Lamagna and other members of the Cocceius Association plan to analyze the construction of the aqueduct as well, to determine the methods used and the presence of water control structures. "We believe that there are ample prospects for defining a research and exploration plan for this important discovery, which adds a significant element to the knowledge of the ancient population" living in the Bay of Naples, they wrote in the report.

By Kristina Killgrove.

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

Only connect -- my modest collection of vintage bridge imagery spans the centuries.

[eopederson]

Fondations: tronc d'olivier centenaire et base de l'aqueduc, Pont du Gard, Occitanie, 2016.

The ancient tree and the ancient aqueduct, much older yet, are about 100 m apart.

[the-spirit-of-yore]

Pont du Gard, Région Occitanie, France

[wandering-jana]

The giant ruins of the Acueducto del los Milagos, in Merida, Spain. See people in second photo for scale.

Check out more of Merida's ruins: