Anyone searching for beautiful photo backdrops in Israel eventually arrives at the beachside ruins of Caesarea’s Roman aqueduct. However, not everyone gets to learn more about this high-tech engineering feat, first introduced to the region when Herod began construction on the city in 22 BC. For the next dozen years, Caesarea Maritima was being built as the capital of Judea, yet lacked a fresh water source.
Enter high-tech, innovative, can-do thinking. The Romans were not the first to use aqueducts, but they perfected the process.
Must have pushed a lot of their kids to follow STEM tracks in school….
You see, the anti-gravity aqueduct technology requires a very high degree of precision.
Kinda like the first time I reported for duty at an understaffed archaeological excavation and the director asked me to recite the Pythagorean Theorem. It was the proper way to employ a right angle and make our excavation squares… square.
a²+b²=c².
After demonstrating my trigonometric knowledge to his satisfaction, I showed him that a perfect square could also be achieved by taking a low-tech piece of paper and using the 90-degree angle at the corner as a datum point of sorts. Follow the two legs of the triangle out to infinity. These are the kind of tricks that homeschooling moms can demonstrate at the drop of a hat.
Maybe he was expecting me to be a STEM Roman with an engineering degree! In that case, we should have been building aqueducts, rather than excavating them….
But an ability to calculate correctly, plus an attention to detail are good character traits to have and the Romans had them in Caesarea, because a very high level of precision was required. For every one mile that the water traveled, there would need to be a drop of 52 feet. The force of gravity would take the water source from a point of origination at the same height as the city to which it would be sent. Through tunnels, canals and aqueducts, the water was carried through channels constructed from rubble and lime mortar, and lined with lime plaster. Like a rushing roller coaster, the water’s pressure could destroy simple clay pipes as it gathered speed, so those would be used later.
The basin, cistern or distribution device at the end held the precious fresh water until taken by clay or lead pipes and sent throughout the city. In Caesarea’s case, the water had traveled from springs near Shuni, located 16 kilometers (almost 10 miles) to the northeast. In its day, this was not a particularly lengthy water transporting system; in Istanbul, the Roman aqueduct ran for over 100 miles.
So, Herod the Great commissioned Caesarea’s first aqueduct and about 100 years later, the Emperor Hadrian visited and conducted repairs on the system, adding a second side-by-side aqueduct on the western or Mediterranean Sea side. The booming population growth required it as we see in New Testament times, when Caesarea had become a Roman administrative center and important port.
Think of the societal impact that aqueduct technology would have on the populace. So much of the Bible contains accounts of important encounters at the village well, or, as an old spiritual might put it, “down by the riverside”. These served as community gathering places, particularly for women.
Times changed rapidly in the First Century AD when aqueduct engineering became prevalent. Sort of like groceries delivered to your doorstep, or the internet coming to your smart phone, Roman technology piped water right to your tap. Yet, folks still had plenty of places to exchange news and chat—from the market, to weddings, to synagogue.
No matter how many high-tech innovations (which frequently result in isolation), the human heart still rises above to this very day to meaningfully connect with others. Stay connected! People reaching people can be a messy business at times, but you were designed to be in touch and carry life-giving living water to all those around you.
Just like the crumbling aqueducts of old. Replaster and keep going strong!
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