ANCIENT FEATS OF STYLE AND ENGINEERING

Anybody fortunate enough to have visited places such as Rome, Florence, and Venice, for example, cannot fail to be overawed by the levels of creativity, design excellence and sheer innovations of our forebears. Buildings developed thousands of years ago that are still usable today are mind-blowing!

I recall visiting the ruins of a Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard Nimes, just outside Arles, France, many years ago. I drove down a typically rural single-track road following some old signage which had seen better days. As I continued, I began to think it would prove a waste of time because nothing significant could lie at the end of such a below-the-radar country lane. How wrong could I have been!

Suddenly, the lane opened up onto a long section of viaduct, sitting in its original, unprotected, and unmaintained condition. Several metres long, the ancient water supply system culminated in alignment through a rocky outcrop before it would have continued on to vault the broad valley some metres below, which now presents as the end of the road for the ruin today.

Free to climb up onto the channel, you can see in close detail how it was built up in layers until it tops out in the fine, smooth, waterproof surface that still remains today. The sheer accuracy of route and level to ensure that the water flow was maintained at just the right speed of flow to avoid excessive wear or pressure problems at its destinations is hard to comprehend, given the rudimentary tools and instruments of the day, when compared to our modern technology.