Aqueduct of Mogontiacum
About
A roughly 9-kilometer aqueduct built in the Flavian period (69-96 CE) to carry spring water from Finthen to the legionary fortress and settlement at Mogontiacum, an estimated 30,000-plus liters a day for the two resident legions. Its final approach crossed the steep Zahlbach valley on arcades up to 30 meters high — the tallest known Roman aqueduct arcade north of the Alps — of which 58-59 tapering pillar cores still stand along the street 'An den Romersteinen.' A Flavian-era work with no attested destruction before the early empire, it was almost certainly still functioning in 117 CE.
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
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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 →