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Roman Aqueduct of Frejus
About
A 42-kilometer channel once carried water from the Siagnole springs down to Forum Iulii's water tower, crossing 36 separate masonry bridges along the way. By 117 CE the system had been feeding the city's fountains and baths for decades. Geologists have measured the mineral crust left inside the channel to show it stayed in continuous use for roughly three centuries; isolated arches still march across the landscape near the modern town entrance.
What happened here
Water arrives day and night and never stops. The channel runs mostly underground, following a shallow gradient measured out with a levelling instrument over tens of miles, and it goes up on arches only where the ground drops away. Inspection shafts sit at intervals; gangs work the line constantly, cutting out the lime crust that thickens on the walls and narrows the flow. At the town end the water is divided in a distribution tank — public fountains first by law, then baths, then private houses whose owners have paid for a pipe of a fixed and stamped size. Illegal tappings are a permanent scandal. What arrives is not stored but runs continuously, and the overflow flushes the drains.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →