this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
305 points (99.4% liked)

Illustrations of history

552 readers
125 users here now

This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!

Generally speaking, actual photos of a historical item should go to !historyartifacts@lemmy.world

Photos of ruins should go to !historyruins@lemmy.world

Photos of the past should go to !HistoryPorn@lemmy.world

founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

By why did they even need one here though?

[–] wischi@programming.dev 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Because it's simpler to build siphons through large valleys instead of 100 meter high 10 kilometer long aqueducts.

[–] Donjuanme@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But you have to keep water pressure throughout the length of that tube, how did they do that with their materials?

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

They had metal working and also knew how to work clay. Plus finding water leaks isn't difficult to know what specific points need attention, then you just add material until it stops leaking. The pipes might have been large enough to work from the inside if the flow was diverted.

They also wouldn't need a perfect seal, just a good enough seal that the majority of the water makes it to the other side.

I'd bet that there were teams of people whose full-time job was to maintain each of the siphons rather than the more modern approach of "build it and then bury it under asphalt because it will probably be fine for years" plumbing takes today.

[–] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

For demonstration purposes only.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Valley was too deep for the aqueduct but they didn’t want to make the drawing taller just for that

[–] Klear@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Romans were notoriously averse to making drawings taller.