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, France , a Roman aqueduct built circa 19 BC. It is one of France's top tourist attractions and a World Heritage Site .]] An aqueduct is an artificial (man-made) channel that is constructed to convey water from one location to another. The word derives from the Latin Words ''aqua'', "water", and ''ducere'', "to lead". Many aqueducts are raised above the landscape, resembling Bridge s rather than River s. Sufficiently large aqueducts may also be usable by Ship s. They are similar to Viaduct s, but carry water instead of a road or railway. While a road bridge often carries the roadway at a more elevated level than the rest of the road, such a variation of height is not possible for an aqueduct. ANCIENT AQUEDUCTS to Jerusalem ]] Although famously associated with the Ancient Romans , aqueducts were devised centuries earlier in the Middle East , where peoples such as the Babylonians and Egyptians built sophisticated irrigation systems. Roman-style aqueducts were used as early as the 7th Century BC , when the Assyrians built a limestone aqueduct 30 feet (10 m) high and 900 feet (300 m) long to carry water across a valley to their capital city, Nineveh . The full length of the aqueduct ran for 50 miles (80 km). In the new world, the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán was watered by an aqueduct in the middle of the Second Millennium . Roman aqueducts See Also: Aqueduct (Roman) Roman Aqueducts were built all over the Roman Empire , from Germany to Africa, and especially in the city of Rome itself, where they totalled over 260 miles (416 km). The aqueducts were important for supplying large cities across the empire, and they set a high standard of engineering that was not surpassed for more than a thousand years. MODERN AQUEDUCTS , the largest and most expensive aqueduct system ever constructed in the United States .]] Much of the expertise of the Roman Engineers was lost in the Dark Ages , and in Europe the construction of aqueducts largely ceased until the 19th Century . Water was instead usually supplied through the digging of Well s, though this could cause serious public health problems when local water supplies became contaminated. One notable exception was the New River , a man-made waterway in England , opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water over a distance of 38 miles (62 km). The development of Canal s provided another spur to aqueduct building. However, it was not until the 19th Century that aqueduct building resumed on a large scale to supply fast-growing cities and water-hungry industries. The developments of new materials (such as Cast Iron ) and new technologies (such as Steam Power ) enabled significant improvements to be made. For instance, cast iron permitted the construction of larger, more highly pressurised inverted siphons, while steam- and electrically-powered pumps enabled a major increase in the quantity and speed of water flow. England led the world in aqueduct construction, with notable examples being built to convey water to Birmingham , Liverpool and Manchester . In modern times the largest aqueducts of all have been built in the United States to supply that country's biggest cities. The Catskill Aqueduct carries water to New York over a distance of 120 miles (190 km), but it is dwarfed by aqueducts in the far west of the country, most notably the Colorado River Aqueduct , which supplies the Los Angeles area with water from the Colorado River nearly 250 miles (400 km) to the east. USES OF AQUEDUCTS aqueduct, Kyoto , Japan ]] Historically, many agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts to Irrigate crops. Archimedes invented the Water Screw to raise water for use in irrigation of croplands. Another widespread use for aqueducts is to supply large cities with clean drinking water. Some of the famed Roman aqueducts still supply water to Rome today. In California , USA , three large aqueducts supply water over hundreds of miles to the Los Angeles area. Two are from the Owens River area and a third is from the Colorado River. In more recent times, aqueducts were used for transportation purposes to allow Canal Barge s to cross ravines or valleys. During the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century , many aqueducts were constructed as part of the general boom in canal-building. In modern Civil Engineering projects, detailed study and analysis of Open Channel Flow is commonly required to support flood control, irrigation systems, and large water supply systems when an aqueduct rather than a pipeline is the preferred solution. The aqueduct is a simple way to get water to other ends of a field. In the past, aqueducts often had channels made of dirt or other porous materials. Significant amounts of water are lost through such unlined aqueducts. As water gets increasingly scarce, these canals are being lined with Concrete , Polymers or impermeable soil. In some cases, a new aqueduct is built alongside the old one because it cannot be shut down during construction. NOTABLE AQUEDUCTS Navigable aqueducts
Ancient Greek aqueducts
Roman aqueducts , Spain . Roman Aqueduct .]] , Tunisia ]] , Istanbul , Turkey ]]
Other aqueducts
SEE ALSO
REFERENCES Sextus Julius Frontinus , '' De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae '' (''On the water management of the city of Rome''), Translated by R. H. Rodgers, 2003, University of Vermont Aqueduct entry from Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition EXTERNAL LINKS
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