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The High-Level Aqueduct of Caesarea
About
Carried fresh water some 16 kilometers on raised stone arches from springs near Shuni to a city Herod had built on bare sand with no water source of its own. A long row of its arches still marches along the beach at Caesarea today, one of the most photographed Roman ruins in Israel. In 117 CE only Herod's original single channel was running — Hadrian would order a second channel built alongside it later in his reign.
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
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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 →