(Image: Bernard Gagnon; the ancient Roman Aqueduct of Segovia)
It’s one of Monty Python’s most-infamous sketches. Trying to foment rebellion against their Italian masters, the People’s Front of Judea end a speech with the rallying cry ‘what have the Romans ever done for us?’, only for the assembled audience to timidly reply ‘umm… the aqueduct?’.
Absurd as it is, the joke does raise a serious point. The ancient Romans liked to combine conquest with management. Rather than just pillaging a province, they built roads, sanitation systems, and water facilities. Icons of engineering, these structures proved so durable that many survive to this day, nearly 2,000 years after the Roman Empire collapsed. Scattered across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, they are testaments to the grand reach and vast power of one of history’s greatest empires.
Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain
(Images: Manuel González Olaechea y Franco; McPolu)
Slicing like a knife through the heart of ancient Segovia lies one of the most-complete Roman aqueducts left in the world. A towering construction that dwarfs the surrounding three-storey buildings, spanning a magnificent 167 arches, the ancient aqueduct linked the waters of the river Frio to the inhabitants of the city. So useful was it that it was still the main source of water for Segovia at the start of the 19th century.
Although originally constructed under the Emperor Domitian during the 1st century AD, the Roman aqueduct has gone through multiple restorations over the centuries. In the Middle Ages, the Moors smashed a great hole through it that remained until the 16th century, when the Spanish Habsburgs ordered its restoration. Today, the UNESCO-listed site is a symbol of Segovia, a perfectly-preserved slice of ancient Roman history surrounded by the bustle of the modern world.
Pont du Gard Aqueduct, France
(Images: Emanuele; Thierry; Édouard BERGÉ)
If people suggest that engineering can’t be an art form, it would be wise to simply show them a picture of the Pont du Gard. Spanning the Gardon River in the south of France, this mighty three-tier structure rises proudly above the surrounding landscape, its limestone blocks shining in the Mediterranean sun. Looking like a subject from a Romantic-era painting, its aura of genteel decay has ensured its status as a tourist destination for over two centuries.
Constructed around 40 AD, the abandoned Roman aqueduct was once capable of carrying a reliable stream of water to the 50,000 citizens of nearby Nimes. Although its original function was gone by the 7th century, it still acted as an important river-crossing, leading to locals working on its upkeep during the centuries when the French state ignored it. The Pont du Gard aqueduct is now an important tourist destination.
Les Ferreres Aqueduct, Spain
(Images: Cruccone; Till F. Teenck)
Just over two miles north of Tarragona, in the heart of Spain’s autonomous community of Catalonia, lies one of the oldest Roman aqueducts in the region. Likely built around 27 BC, during the reign of Augustus, it rises 27 metres from the landscape, spanning the horizon. Later repurposed as a bridge, the ancient structure today has the chilling nickname of Pont del Diable, Spanish for ‘Devil’s Bridge.’
Unlike some of those featured here, Les Ferreres feels remote from civilisation. Although the port city of Tarragona is located nearby, the ancient Roman aqueduct itself is out in the countryside, surrounded by gnarled old trees and scattered with tiny clumps of grass. Seen on a quiet day, it can feel like you’re stepping back in time, to a world that has long since been swept aside by the arrival of modernity.
Eifel Aqueduct, Germany
(Image: Mediatus; Putput)
A once-mighty aqueduct that stretched 81 miles across the wilderness of Germany, from the Eifel hills to modern Cologne, the Eifel aqueduct today survives only in traces despite being one of the longest of its kind in the Roman Empire. It’s possible to find an archway here, a reconstructed section there, a Roman maintenance hatch elsewhere. But of the engineering marvel that once traversed valleys and crossed mighty rivers, only the faintest suggestions remain, like the tiny indentations left by footprints in sand after the tide has come in.
Perhaps this isn’t surprising. Much of the ancient aqueduct itself ran underground, buried beneath the earth to protect the water from Germany’s harsh winters and stop it from freezing. Yet time and ignorance took their toll, too. The Roman aqueduct was smashed by tribes in 260 AD, and later used as an easy source of building materials. Today fragments of it can be found all over the country, embedded in walls, including in a pillar at Cologne Cathedral.
Ancient Roman Aqueduct at Caesarea, Israel
(Image: Mark87)
Once a great Roman city on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, Caesarea is now little more than a sun-bleached ruin, crumbling beneath clear Israeli skies. Built under the rule of Herod the Great, it was a vital port of the late Roman Empire, and during the early days of Byzantine Christianity. Yet following the Muslim Conquest the ancient city fell into ruin, empty and unloved.
Today, Caesarea’s many remains are part of a national park site (known as Caesarea Maritima). One of the most-spectacular of all is the ancient Roman aqueduct, now largely buried by sand, only its top poking out. A long, crumbling brick structure, it has the feel of somewhere truly forgotten about over the centuries, left to become the shambling ruin we see today.
The Aqueduct of Aspendos, Turkey
(Image: Longbow4u)
Located in the dry, dusty south of Turkey, Aspendos is today famous for its remarkably preserved Roman amphitheatre. But plenty of other structures have survived here too, protected from the ravages of time by the region’s mild climate. Not least of these is the ruined Roman aqueduct.
Although not as well-preserved as the amphitheatre, the ancient aqueduct retains just enough of its original form to impress on any visitor just how vast a structure it must have been. Sweeping up high into the air it rises suddenly from the plain, a collage of arches, columns and rickety stairways. Grasses grow on exposed blocks. Dust crumbles down its sides. The Aspendos aqueduct is decay reimagined as poetry, a sublime ruin in a town full of them.
Ancient Aqueduct in Nea Ionia, Athens, Greece
(Image: Carole Raddato)
You may rightly think of the ancient Roman aqueduct of Segovia as impressive, bringing water to the city far into the 19th century. But the aqueducts of Athens are arguably in a league of their own. Today, thousands of years after they were first constructed, some are still working. At least one continues to bring water to the city well into 2016.
However, it is the many ancient remains of abandoned aqueducts we’re mostly interested in here, such as this one on the outskirts of the Nea Ionia suburb of Athens. Built during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, it once brought water cascading into this Athenian outpost. Since then, the passing of the centuries has rendered it obsolete. Now it merely sits as a picturesque ruin, a collapsing wall barely recognisable as an aqueduct of the ancient Roman Empire.
Pont d’Aël Aqueduct, Italy
(Images: Wolfgang Sauber; Mathias Döring)
If you were to go hiking in the far north of Italy, where the Italian-speaking lands give way to German and French, you might just stumble across this remarkable Roman structure. Built around the year 3 BC to help with irrigation, the ancient aqueduct spans the 150-metre-deep Grand Eyvia, today the only possible crossing point. One of very few aqueducts built using private funds, the inscription of its benefactor, Caius Avillius Caimus, still remains remarkably legible to this day.
Unlike many ancient Roman aqueducts, little of the Pont d’Aël stretches above the ground, and the whole structure contains only a handful of arches. Yet it remains an impressive sight. Rising from the canyon below, it makes for an unbeatable example of Roman engineering, conquering nature with a skill and precision that wouldn’t be seen again for centuries.
Barbegal Aqueduct and Mill, France
(Images: Vi.. Cult…; maarjaara; MatthiasKabel)
Just outside Arles in France lie the remains of one of the industrial powerhouses of the Roman Empire. Called “the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world,” the complex was a place where multiple aqueducts brought water cascading in, powering 16 great waterwheels for the production of flour. At its peak, this highly-advanced mill complex could churn out 4.5 tons of the stuff a day, a remarkable feat in those times.
Although the Barbegal Aqueduct and Mill is now in ruins, enough remains of it to give an idea of what it must have once been like. Key to this is the crumbling aqueduct you can see above, now little more than a broken ruin. Unfurling under grey skies, this unassuming pile of rubble once helped the ancient Roman’s harness the mighty power of water to change the shape of the landscape. Now, nature slowly reclaims it, sinking the abandoned aqueduct beneath a carpet of grass and moss.
Acueducto de los Milagros, Spain
(Image: Rafael)
Of all the surviving aqueducts of ancient Rome, perhaps none evoke so much awe as the Acueducto de los Milagros in Spain. Known as the ‘miraculous aqueduct’ for its impressive height and magnificent high arches, it was constructed in the 1st century AD from a patchwork of granite and brick. Although only 38 arches still stand – a fraction of the original – it is enough to still bring visitors from across the country and beyond.
Remarkably, it is not just the abandoned Roman aqueduct that survives here. A whole plethora of Roman ruins can be found around nearby Mérida. The remarkably well-preserved Temple of Diana is one, along with the grand amphitheatre. Taken together, the whole site represents one of Spain’s greatest collections of ancient ruins, the miraculous Acueducto de los Milagros being the capstone for the whole ensemble.
If the ruined aqueducts of ancient Rome are your thing, you may also enjoy these more modern abandoned bridges and viaducts to nowhere.
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