Aqueduct Photos
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How is an aqueduct constructed?
The first story is composed of six arches. The second story consists of ten
arches, and the third story carries the water with thirty-five arches.
Pont du Gard; Nimes, France
Column
third story
Arch
second story
first story
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Arches, especially the arches constructed in the Pont du
Gard, were built around wooden frames. The frames
were removed upon completion.
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• An arch was constructed from each end up to the
center piece, known as the keystone.
• The keystone exerts a force on the adjacent stones so
that this one stone at the top held the entire arch
together. Thus, it is the key to the structure.
keystone
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• The Romans transported water
from far away to cities via
aqueducts.
• Cities had plumbing, providing
private water for the rich and
for public baths. Poor
neighborhoods shared a public
water site.
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How does an aqueduct work?
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Water is heavy stuff. It
weighs 8.34 pounds per
gallon.
The Romans needed a
structure strong enough to
hold all that water to
move it from the
mountains into the city.
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The water was transported in concrete tunnels. The tunnels were
underground if possible. Sometimes the tunnel had to go above ground.
Tunnels could be build with a shaft. This shaft allowed them to take out
dirt and lower supplies to the workers.
shaft
tunnel
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water channel
The water flowed in a tube on the top of the aqueduct
called a water channel. The arches supported the water
channel.
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The channel was lined with concrete. The Romans invented
concrete.
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How did it work?
• Gravity made the water
flow.
• Roman engineers had
to construct the
aqueduct so the water
would flow.
• The aqueduct was build
to slope down at a .025
meters per kilometer.
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Comparing Rome to Modern
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Construct an Aqueduct Game by Nova
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/
roman/aqueductwave.html
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/
roman/aqueductjava.html
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Photo Credits
•
•
•
•
https://eee.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/SpinningWeb/aqueclaudiamapb.jpg
http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/aqua/images/aquetunl.jpg
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/aqueducts2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_aqueduct
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Sources
http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/struct
ural/10-roman-engineering-tricks.htm
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/sciencechannel/29209-what-the-ancients-knew-romanarchitecture-video.htm
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/11/romanhistory-comes-to-life-in-google.html
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