History of SanitationCosgrove, J. J. (John Joseph)
History
History of Sanitation
Cosgrove, J. J. (John Joseph)
Sanitation -- History
Prior to the construction of the tunnel, the ancient city of Jerusalem
was supplied with water through two aqueducts, one of which supplied
water from the famous pools of Solomon, to the south of the city, and
the other poured its contents into the pools of Hezekiah, outside the
walls of the city.
The Greeks were the next in point of time to construct tunnels in
connection with the building of aqueducts. In 625 B. C. the Greek
engineer Eupalinus constructed a tunnel 8 feet broad by 8 feet high and
4,200 feet long, through which was built a channel to supply the city
of Athens with water.
[Illustration: Ancient Roman Well]
This period marks the beginning in Greece and Rome of a school of
architects and engineers whose works have left a lasting impression
on art and engineering science, and to this day are monuments of
proportion and beauty of design that are studied by all students of
architecture and engineering. It is quite probable that Greece supplied
the first engineers that constructed aqueducts in Carthage and Rome.
The similarity in design of these various works points forcibly to the
conclusion that they were all designed by disciples of one school.
Whether the first aqueducts were built in Carthage or in Rome is a
matter of some uncertainty, although the fact that an aqueduct supplied
Carthage with water at the time it was destroyed by the Romans would
point to the Carthagenian aqueduct as the prior. The first Roman
aqueduct was built in the year 312 B. C., and the city of Carthage,
which, after a protracted struggle of 118 years, from 265 B. C. to 147
B. C., was finally conquered and destroyed by the Romans, was at that
time supplied with water from distant springs through an aqueduct.
It is quite probable that Carthage was supplied with water from
two different sources. The cisterns already mentioned provided a
supply of rain water for industrial and most domestic uses, while
the aqueduct, the channel of which had a cross-section of 10 inches
square, brought drinking water from springs in the Zaghorn Mountains,
some 60 kilometers distant. The aqueduct contoured the hillside for a
considerable distance, at times went under ground, and on approaching
the city was carried on arches of magnitude seemingly out of proportion
to the size of the channel. At present it is suffering the fate of most
ancient ruins. It is used as a quarry from which stones are taken to
construct buildings in nearby towns and villages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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