Page 34 - Urban water supply handbook

URBAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

URBAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE 1.33

FIGURE 1.23 Aqueducts in ancient Rome. (a) Termini of the major aqueducts (Evans, 1994),
and (b) the area of the Spes Vetus showing the courses of the major aqueducts entering the city
above ground. (From R. Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae, as presented in Evans, 1994)

1.3.3 Aqueduct of Nîmes (Ancient Nemausus)
and the Pont du Gard
The aqueduct of Nemausus (built circa 20 B.C. by Agrippa) conveyed water
approximately 50 km from the Fontaine d’Eure at Uzes to the castellum in Nîmes
(see the location of the route in Fig. 1.26). The most spectacular feature of this
aqueduct is the Pont du Gard (Bridge of the Gard) discussed at the end of this sec-
tion. Of almost equal importance from an engineering viewpoint, however, is the
not-so-obvious gradient of the aqueduct from Uzes to Nîmes and the high quality
of surveying that would have been required to maintain the gradient during con-

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