This is one of the greatest architectural achievements in history. It is an oval amphitheater in the center of the city of Rome, Italy. The design process for Roman arenas involved drawing floor plans to scale, three-dimensional models, perspective drawings, and full-size design sketches.
Today, a similar process is invoked; however, due to advancements in technology, blueprints can be drawn up on computers, so that drawing elaborate hands by plan is not necessary. Before building an arena, it is essential to have a vast understanding of the land surrounding the area when the arena is to be built.
Since the Colosseum was built in a valley where there was previously a lake, its construction had to be carefully planned and executed. Drains had to be built under the Colosseum, because of the streams that flow from the valleys and hills surrounding the area. Essays Essays FlashCards. Browse Essays. Sign in. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Related Documents Roman Architecture Analysis One hundred and eighteen arches support the water channel, superimposed in two registers at highest point.
Read More. If you live in an area where ample rain falls all year, you won't see many aqueducts like the ones pictured here. But there are many areas of the world, such as the western United States, where much less rainfall occurs and it may only occur during certain times of the year.
Large cities and communities in the dry areas need lots of water, and nature doesn't always supply it to them. Some parts of the western U. So, some states have developed ways of moving water from the place of ample supply to the thirsty areas. Engineers have built aqueducts, or canals, to move water, sometimes many hundreds of miles.
Actually, aqueducts aren't a high-tech modern invention—the ancient Romans had aqueducts to bring water from the mountains above Rome, Italy to the city. Can you see something about the aqueduct picture above that causes some water to be lost in transit? In all environments, but especially In places where the climate is hot and dry, a certain portion of the water flowing in the aqueduct is bound to evaporate.
It would be more efficient to cover the aqueduct to stop loss by evaporation , but the cost of covering it must be weighed against the value of the evaporated water. The aqueduct was used to supply water to the town on Nimes, which is about 30 miles from the Mediterranean Sea.
The total length of the aqueduct was about 31 miles, though, considering its winding journey. There is even a Roman aqueduct that is still functioning and bringing water to some of Rome's fountains.
The Acqua Vergine, built in 19 B. Aqueducts were not the Roman's choice for water-delivery systems, as they would use buried pipes when possible much easier to bury a pipe than build an above-ground system. Jacobsen and Lloyd , 6 estimated that some 2 million blocks of stone were employed in construction of the aqueduct at Jerwan.
Another notable early achievement in hydraulic engineering is the qanat. A qanat is an underground tunnel that transports water from a well to the ground surface Deming , Qanats appeared in the Middle East sometime in the early first millennium BC; the precise location and date of their origin is uncertain Wilson Qanats remain in use today, commonly in arid regions Wilson , From the sixth century BC through the fourth, Athens was supplied with water by the Peisistratean, Hymettos, and Acharnian aqueducts Chiotis and Marinos , However Greek aqueducts consisted of little more than underground terracotta pipes Hodge , Although the ancient Greeks made seminal contributions in philosophy, science, and mathematics Deming , the magnitude and technological refinement of their hydraulic engineering works lagged far behind Roman accomplishments.
The Greeks also seemed to lack effective municipal sewers. The best known example of a Greek aqueduct, however, is not in Greece, but on the island of Samos Deming , 27 to The Tunnel of Eupalinos was constructed in the sixth century BC for the purpose of bringing water from a spring into the major city on Samos Wilson , According to Herodotus c. The construction of the aqueduct involved cutting a tunnel through a hill of solid rock by excavating from both sides simultaneously.
The tunnel itself did not carry water. After the adit was cut, a sloping trough was hewn into the floor. Water was then conveyed in a terracotta pipe laid in the trough.
The expansive dimensions of the tunnel allowed room for human access and maintenance of the aqueduct, a feature shared with Roman aqueducts Hodge , 27 to The predecessors of the Romans in Italy, the Etruscans, had no aqueducts, but excelled at constructing drainage tunnels known as cuniculi Hodge , 45 to The typical function of an Etruscan cuniculi was to remove excess water from arable land.
It seems that the Romans inherited some expertise in drainage from the Etruscans, as the first major work of hydraulic engineering in ancient Rome was the great sewer, the Cloaca Maxima.
Water was important in Roman culture. The abundant supply of water provided by the aqueducts allowed the city of Rome itself to grow and prosper Wilson During the troubled first century BC, the aqueducts were largely neglected.
The waters of the Alsietina were used primarily for the irrigation of gardens and naumachia , mock naval battles conducted in artificial lakes Frontinus , The waters of the Aqua Claudi a were derived from a spring and praised by Frontinus for their purity. It is not entirely clear that the average citizen of ancient Rome obtained most of their daily water supply from the aqueducts.
Wells and cisterns were major sources of water Niebuhr , ; Hodge , 48; Wilson Certainly, the Romans were prodigious well diggers. At Saalburg, a Roman fort in Germany, excavations have found 99 wells Hodge , Houses or apartment buildings in Rome usually had either a well or a cistern, and public wells were located throughout the city Hodge , It seems likely that if the River Tiber ever supplied water to any significant extent, it must have been very early in Roman times.
Like all surface water, the Tiber was surely contaminated by sewage. And as Rome is built on hills above the river, transporting water uphill surely would have been arduous. Most Romans probably obtained their daily water supplies from fountains supplied by aqueducts Wilson , Frontinus enumerated public water basins lacus in first century Rome Frontinus , And the insulae , or apartment buildings, where most people lived, typically lacked cisterns Scobie , Water may not have even been the major beverage consumed by most Romans.
It has been argued that the daily practice in the ancient world was to consume prodigious amounts of alcoholic beverages because uncontaminated water supplies were scarce Vallee On the other hand, it is doubtful if much of the ancient Roman population could afford to purchase alcoholic beverages on a regular basis.
Plutarch c. Although the aqueducts were undoubtedly an important component of the daily household water supply in Rome, their most important function was to facilitate the Roman passion for bathing. It seems that the fascination with bathing was inherited from the Greeks.
Public Greek bathing facilities date from the fifth century BC, and about 75 structures have been identified Rogers , At the height of the empire, the number approached Carcopino , To provide for the enormous amounts of water consumed by the Baths, Caracalla tapped an additional spring to supplement the Aqua Marcia aqueduct Ashby , Large bath complexes could also be complemented by a reservoir cistern that was filled overnight so as to provide additional flow during daily operating hours Wilson , Baths of Caracalla, painting by Virgilio Mattoni de la Fuente to , public domain.
The main building at Caracalla occupies an area of 2. It has been estimated that Caracalla was able to accommodate as many as 10, people daily Bruun , These included a natatio swimming pool , caldarium hot room , tepidarium warm room , and frigidarim cold room. Ancillary features of the bath complex included a library, rooms for exercise and massage, eateries, and a theater Oetelaar , 46; Carcopino , Neither was Caracalla unique in its opulence.
The Romans spared no expense or effort in the decoration of their bathing facilities. It seems that in Republican days, men and women had separate bathing facilities. But during the first century AD, it became an accepted cultural practice for men and women to bath together fully nude Fagan , 24 to 28, Ward , The sexes were segregated again in the second century AD by order of Hadrian, emperor from AD through As the physical facilities could not have been completely rebuilt, this separation must have been achieved by designating distinct time periods for men and women to utilize the baths Carcopino , It is unclear to what extent Hadrian's rule was followed.
Ancient Rome was far from an egalitarian society. Yet class distinctions apparently vanished when bathing. Most aqueducts were supplied by groundwater as opposed to surface water Hodge , Before the ascent of the Romans, the Greeks evidently understood that groundwater flow could be provided by infiltration. The most common source for an aqueduct was a spring Hodge , And when the Romans tapped a spring for an aqueduct, they typically augmented the flow and supply by driving tunnels or adits into the surrounding terrain Hodge , Aqueduct water was almost always hard, containing significant quantities of dissolved minerals.
Although today we associate Roman aqueducts with the remains of soaring arches and arcades, the most common form was a surface channel Hodge , The channel was constructed of masonry, laid about 0. Bottom and sides were lined with a waterproof cement. Aqueducts had to be large enough for human beings to enter and work.
The Aqua Marcia , for example, was 0. Minimum aqueduct dimensions were determined not by the water flow, but by the need for human access and maintenance. Hundreds of slaves were employed on a regular basis to maintain and refurbish the aqueducts Walker and Dart , 9. The expense of the workers as well as the cost of the materials was paid by the Emperor, but this was offset by revenues derived by selling water rights Frontinus , In the Republican period, aediles and censors seem to have been given the responsibility for constructing and maintaining the aqueducts and sewers.
Presumably this action was only taken in the cases of people who were stealing water from the aqueducts. Aqueducts were amazing feats of engineering given the time period. Though earlier civilizations in Egypt and India also built aqueducts, the Romans improved on the structure and built an extensive and complex network across their territories.
Aqueducts required a great deal of planning. They were made from a series of pipes, tunnels, canals, and bridges. Gravity and the natural slope of the land allowed aqueducts to channel water from a freshwater source, such as a lake or spring, to a city.
As water flowed into the cities, it was used for drinking, irrigation, and to supply hundreds of public fountains and baths. Roman aqueduct systems were built over a period of about years, from B. Both public and private funds paid for construction. High-ranking rulers often had them built; the Roman emperors Augustus, Caligula, and Trajan all ordered aqueducts built. The most recognizable feature of Roman aqueducts may be the bridges constructed using rounded stone arches.
Some of these can still be seen today traversing European valleys. However, these bridged structures made up only a small portion of the hundreds of kilometers of aqueducts throughout the empire. The capital in Rome alone had around 11 aqueduct systems supplying freshwater from sources as far as 92 km away 57 miles. Despite their age, some aqueducts still function and provide modern-day Rome with water.
The Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct constructed by Agrippa in 19 B.
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