Ruwer Aqueduct
About
A channel almost 13 kilometers long tapped the Ruwer river and pushed up to 25,000 cubic meters of water a day into the city's baths and fountains. Masons lined it with waterproof opus signinum and vaulted it over a duct barely 78 centimeters wide. It belongs to the second century and postdates the 117 CE snapshot, built to feed the huge new bathhouses. Trajan's Trier still drew on wells and the river.
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 →