"Roman engineers chipped an aqueduct through more than 100 kilometers of stone to connect water to cities in the ancient province of Syria [in today's Jordan]. The monumental effort took more than a century. "Amazing" is the word that the researcher uses to describe the achievement of the construction crews, who were most likely legionnaires. The soldiers chiseled over 600,000 cubic meters of stone from the ground -- or the equivalent of one-quarter of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. This colossal waterworks project supplied the great cities of the "Decapolis" -- a league originally consisting of 10 ancient communities -- with spring water. The aqueduct ended in Gadara, a city with a population of approximately 50,000."If the Roman's could do this two millennia ago, surely we today can build waterworks and other translogistics infrastructure to support a prosperous and vital Levant!
23 March 2009
Epic Roman Tunnel ~ 100km Thru Jordanian Rock
Thanks to Der Spiegel story The Ancient World's Longest Underground Aqueduct by Matthias Schulz for showcasing this discovery by Mathias Döring, a hydromechanics professor in Darmstadt, Germany...
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