Roman Aqueducts transported water to the cities.

Roman Aqueducts are considered to be the eighth wonder of the world and are on a par with the Pyramids.
They were a marvel of engineering of the Ancient World and many are still standing today.

Roman cities were built far away from a fresh water source and they needed to transport water to the city.
This was done by enclosing a miniature canal with stone sections and a lid, adding an incline of 1:100 and skirting the contours of hillsides and building arches over valleys.
Then after piercing the city wall, the aqueduct entered into a huge storage tank known as a Cistern.

The Source
- The water source was often located many miles away, was high up so that gravity would conduct the water downhill to the city.
The Aqueduct
- The aqueduct was built with arches stretching for miles over valleys, transported the water great distances using a constant gradient of one in a hundred.
The Cistern
- The cistern was the water collecting point inside the city walls.
Lead Pipes
- Lead pipes and Wooden pipes conducted the water from the Cistern to various Water Towers to create pressure.
The Water Towers
- Water towers then delivered the water via more lead pipes to the Public Fountains, Public Baths, Palaces and private houses where the populace accessed the water.
The Sewers
- Sewers drained the used water away into the nearest river. The sewer of Rome, the Cloaca Maxima is still in use and the sewers of York were unearthed in 1972.

Piscina Mirabilis (c.10 CE)
- This is a well preserved gigantic water cistern carved out of a hillside.
- It was the terminus for the Aqua Augusta which ran around the Bay of Naples in Italy.
Nimes Castellum Divisorum (1st century CE)
- The Catellum Divisorum in Nimes, France, is a well preserved Roman circular water cistern with ten lead pipes leading from it to distribute the water into the town of Nimes.
Basilica Cistern (c.378 CE)
- The Basilica Cistern is an underground cathedral-like structure in Istanbul, Turkey.
- It is located under the Stoa Basilica, from which it derives it’s name, on the First Hill of Constantinople.
- It was completed in c. 378 CE and was supplied by the Aqueduct of Valens (373 CE)

Lyon
- The Gier Aqueduct supplied water to Lyon using 11 tunnels of which four are inverted Syphon tunnels.
- Although Lyon is on a hilltop, it was supplied by a stream from a mountain 53 miles (85km) away.
- To reach it, four inverted siphons were built to cross the valleys of the Dureze, Garon, Yzeron and Trion rivers.
- Water left the opposite hillside, poured down to the valley floor in an inverted siphon in the form of a U, crossed the river in a tube on arches, then climbed up the other side, and emerged at a slightly lower level.
Arles
- Lead pipes have been found under the Rhone, between Arles and its suburb on the opposite bank, showing that it was also connected to the Arles water system by an inverted siphon.
- Unusually, the aqueduct that brought water to Arles was diverted into a downhill section at Barbegal and used to power 16 waterwheels, to mill the flour for the city.

Vitruvius
- Vitruvius (c.88-26 BCE) was a Roman Engineer who wrote De Architectura, ‘The Ten Books on Architecture’ (c.15 BCE), in which he describes how the Romans built their Aqueducts and other Great Works.
- This knowledge was lost until he was rediscovered during the Renaissance.
Frontinus
- Julius Sextus Frontinus (c.35–c.103 CE) was a Roman Senator best known for his Works on Aqueducts and Military Strategy. In ‘De Aquaeductu’ he describes the aqueducts of Rome.
- He became Prefect of the Aqueducts of Rome or ‘Curator Aquarum’ in 97 CE, and published a work titled ‘The Aqueducts of Rome’ in which he stated that nine Aqueducts supplied water to 39 fountains and 591 public pools.

De Architectura (c.15 BCE)
- Vitruvius described the construction of Aqueducts and the machines used in the building of great works.
‘De Aquaeductu’ (95-99 CE)
- Frontinus described the Aqueducts of Ancient Rome.

Pont de les Ferreres
- A Roman Aqueduct located 4 miles (7km) north of Tarragon (Tarraco), Spain, built to supply the city with water.
Roman Aqueduct of Segovia
- Located in the city of Segovia.

Roman Aqueduct of Diocletian
- A 5 mile (9km) Roman Aqueduct supplying water from the Jadro River to Diocletian's Palace at Split.

Aqueduct of Valens, Istanbul
- A surviving section 3,185 ft (921m) long spans the Ataturk Boulevard in Istanbul.
- The aqueduct was built over a distance of 167 miles (268km) between Constantinople and the springs at Danimandere and Pinarca.
- It featured an advanced double channel so that engineers could keep water flowing in one channel, whilst they cleaned the other.