The Romans used a few methods, including siphons and various water-lifting devices, experts told Live Science.
At Aspendos, in southern Turkey, there is a second-century-A.D. Roman aqueduct with inverted siphons that scholars have reconstructed with a virtual modeling simulation. To get water through a valley, the Romans built a "header tank" on one end of the valley and a slightly lower "receiving tank" (or "outlet tank") on the other side. In the valley, they constructed two towers between the tanks, Paul Kessener, a researcher in the Department of Language and Culture Studies at Radboud University in the Netherlands, noted in an article published in 2000 in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
It was important to prevent air pockets from forming as the water went through the inverted siphons. The header and receiving tanks were relatively large, allowing air bubbles to escape, Giovanni De Feo, a professor of industrial engineering at the University of Salerno in Italy, noted in an email.
The Romans tried to avoid using inverted siphons, said Charles Ortloff, a research associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago who has a background in both engineering and history. When "Roman engineers encounter a valley, rather than construct a siphon, they [preferred] to build a bridge with a top channel to cross a valley," Ortloff said in an email. One example of this is at the Segovia aqueduct in Spain, which has a stunning bridge that still survives today.
This photo, taken in 1976, shows a more modern version of an Archimedes screw being used to raise water onto a field in Egypt. (Image credit: Roger Viollet via Getty Images)Roman water-lifting devices
Perhaps the best known of these devices is the Archimedes screw, which was sometimes used to help lift water from rivers to fields. (It was allegedly designed by Archimedes, a Greek inventor who lived during the third century B.C. However, it might have actually been invented at an earlier time, noted historians Stephanie Dalley and John Peter Oleson in a 2003 paper.) When "turned by use of animal power, [it] can effectively raise water from lower river heights to higher land area heights," Ortloff said.
A modern-day reconstruction of a Roman water wheel. Similar wheels were used to help lift water out of mines and other locations. (Image credit: DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY via Getty Images)Related mysteries
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Another device, sometimes known as Ctesibius' pump, "was hand-moved, operating a wooden lever with a swinging motion," the scientists wrote. It had two cylinders connected to a central chamber through pistons, and the driven water exited through a nozzle connected to the central chamber.
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