Roman Aqueduct of Nicopolis
About
This roughly 50-kilometer channel carried water from the Louros River springs down an 80-meter elevation drop to the growing city, but its actual build date is unresolved: estimates range from the Augustan or Neronian 1st century to as late as Hadrian's reign in the 2nd century. Because a credible reading places its construction at or after 117 CE, it is marked not-yet-built here rather than assumed early.
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 →