The tunnel begins in Syria and runs 64 kiometers above ground before going below the surface in three lengths of one, 11 and 94 kilometers.
Posted on 03/13/2009 8:35:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Roman engineers chipped an aqueduct through more than 100 kilometers of stone to connect water to cities in the ancient province of Syria. The monumental effort took more than a century, says the German researcher who discovered it... The tunnel begins in Syria and runs 64 kiometers above ground before going below the surface in three lengths of one, 11 and 94 kilometers... The tunnel was discovered by Mathias Döring, a hydromechanics professor in Darmstadt, Germany... Qanat Firaun, "Canal of the Pharaohs," is what the locals call the weathered old pipeline. There are even rumors that gold is hidden in the underground passageways that run up to 80 meters (262 feet) below the surface... It begins in an ancient swamp in Syria, which has long since dried out, and extends for 64 kilometers on the surface before it disappears into three tunnels, with lengths of 1, 11 and 94 kilometers. The longest previously known underground water channel of the antique world -- in Bologna -- is only 19 kilometers long... The soldiers chiseled over 600,000 cubic meters of stone from the ground -- or the equivalent of one-quarter of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. This colossal waterworks project supplied the great cities of the "Decapolis" -- a league originally consisting of 10 ancient communities -- with spring water.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
The tunnel begins in Syria and runs 64 kiometers above ground before going below the surface in three lengths of one, 11 and 94 kilometers.
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“Aqueducts!”
Think about that a second.. we would never start a project today we couldn’t finish in our life time.
Read this cool story earlier today! Can you dig it?
Interstate 45 in Houston looked like it was going to take longer than my lifetime to finish.
“Think about that a second.. we would never start a project today we couldn’t finish in our life time.”
Quite so...especially with all these situations that if bill XYZ isn’t passed, the world will blow up tomorrow. Even if there’s a 3-day delay signing it after we agree to pass it.
There is nothing quite like hard rock mining to focus the attention on that greatest of all technological rhetorical statements: “There HAS to be an easier way of doing this!”
Everything from using reflectors to shine light in the hole when working, underground navigation, candle head lights, iron tools (after 300BC). And even slaves need protective gear or they will be injured too quickly.
Iron, wood, leather, slaves.
Ever been to Chicago?
100 years, 100 kM.
Man to Romans were so far ahead of us in everything.
A true generational work.
. I get winded cleaning out the post hole with the clam shell after the tractor has drilled the actual hole.
I always thought people had to commit murder and such to have to deal with that type of workload.
Those Romans were some industrious sons of guns.
New York City’s Water Tunnel No. 3 began construction in 1970 and will not be completed until at least 2020. This tunnel was featured in Die Hard with a Vengeance.
I can’t think of any current construction project with a longer schedule. 50 years may not be a lifetime. But it’s close.
This feat is just incredible. I have never heard of this. Thanks.
Now that is a monumental undertaking. I am a bit surprised that the Romans didn’t either tap it farther upstream, or use pumps to fill their Gadara reservoir, though.
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Amazing.
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