Download The Romans were the first to build aqueducts. Aqueducts were

The Romans were the first to build aqueducts. Aqueducts were construction that brought water
to cities and industrial sites. These aqueducts were one of the greatest feasts of engineering in
the ancient world. The aqueducts set a standard not equaled for over a thousand years after
the fall of Rome. Many cities still maintain and use the ancient
aqueducts for their water supply even today.
Since Rome was the largest city it was where the aqueducts were
concentrated. Rome itself had 11 constructed aqueducts over a
period of 500 years. In Latin aqueducts means water +
ere
(aqua, “water”, and ducere, “to lead”). Nowadays instead of
aqueducts we have pipes, ditches, canals, and tunnels.
Only a portion of Rome’s aqueducts system actually cross over valleys on stone arches(30 miles
out of a total of about 260 miles); the rest consisted of underground conduits(pipes) made
mostly of stone and terra cotta but also of wood, leather, lead, and bronze.
There was a limestone aqueduct built by the Assyrians around 691 BC to bring fresh water to
the city of Nineveh. It was approximately built with 2,000,000 large blocks to make a water
channel 30 feet (10 meters) high and 900 feet long across a valley.
Water flowed to the city by the force of gravity alone and usually
went through a series of distribution tanks within the city. The
water that went into cities were divided into sections. The section
consisted of the Rich, City fountains, and general uses. Water was
shut down if it was scarce. Generally water was not stored, and the
excess was used to flush out sewers.
Roman aqueducts were built through out the empire and heir arches may still be in Greece,
Italy, France, Spain, North Africa, and Asia Minor.
As Rome fell apart in the 4th and 5th centuries, the
system were destroyed. For most of the Middle
Ages aqueducts were not used in western Europe,
and people returned to getting their water from
wells and local rivers.