Preservation of the Roman Aqueduct at Gadara

Roman aqueducts are a constant marvel of engineering as each and every aqueduct is unique. Their remains are still clearly visible in many landscapes around the wide Mediterranean area.

The latest news on the subject comes from Umm Qais, the modern name for ancient Gadara in Jordan. It has been established that Gadara had the largest Roman water system in the world, running over a distance of 170 kilometers all the way into modern Syria.

In an earlier blog (see: Another legacy of Alexander in Gadara), I casually mentioned the discovery of a network of water tunnels, including a number of Hellenistic ones but at present, the entire system has been traced and mapped.

Scholars speak of a twin-aqueduct as two systems running parallel, the upper and the lower tunnels. On their way to Gadara, water from other sources was added coming from springs, and channels that were cut in the rock surface to collect the rainwater. It also has been established that the aqueducts were combined with karezes or qanats which automatically provided underground access to the channels in order to carry out the maintenance works.

Since most of Gadara is built on top of the ancient city, the exact course of these aqueducts cannot always be followed exactly but they appear in the section that has been excavated near the Baths, the Byzantine Church, and a number of private houses. Around the many Nymphaeums that survived, for instance, those along the Decumanus, it is still possible to find traces of the connecting aqueducts.

A detailed study on the Roman aqueducts in Jordan can be found on the site Roman Aqueducts.