Aqueduct of Segovia
About
One hundred and sixty-seven dry-stone granite arches stride across the valley to the Plaza del Azoguejo, rising to 28 meters without a drop of mortar holding the ashlars together — the postcard image of Roman Hispania. For decades textbooks dated it to Domitian's reign (c. 98 CE) on the strength of a reconstructed bronze inscription, but a 2016 re-analysis of foundation fill from three pillars turned up a Trajanic sestertius struck 112-116 CE sealed in the packing — proof that at least part of the structure was still under construction well into Trajan's final years. A foundation coin only fixes when building started, not when it finished, and aqueduct bridges this scale typically took years above the footings, so this map takes the strict reading: still rising, not yet complete, at the 117 CE snapshot.
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 →