Athens Revives Ancient Roman Aqueduct to Deliver Water to The City

Athens is tapping into its 2,000-year-old Roman engineering to preserve and supply water, reduce city temperatures, and create more green spaces.

An etching from 1759 of Hadrian's Aqueduct and the Temple of Minerva | Wikimedia Commons

Europe’s oldest continually inhabited capital is peppered with reminders of its chequered past, including Roman Emperor Hadrian’s ancient aqueduct that now holds the key to help tackle the city's growing water scarcity. By reopening these ancient water channels, which are fed by multiple self-sustaining springs, the city can cool down, save up to 80,000 cubic meters of water a year, and create more green spaces, says the EU Environment Agency.

Hadrian’s Aqueduct, commissioned by Emperor Hadrian in 125 C.E. and completed in 140, is one of several projects the ruler, known for his proclivity to build, has to his name. The aqueduct was originally constructed to fullfil the empire’s ancient water needs and sustain Athens’ public baths. Sloping underground channels collect water from rivers and streams and rain via a network of several hundred wells that were drilled along its length, likely by enslaved workers.

The gravity-fed waterway snakes its way throughout the capital, extending for 15 miles, and when some residents turn on their showers in the next week or two, water will flow to some taps from this ancient source. “It’s quite simple. We pull the water out of a Roman well, we process and filter it in a modern unit next to the ancient one, and from there it goes to homes,” an official told National Geographic.

If the first phase of Hadrian’s Aqueduct revitalization proves successful, it could become a model for other major cities experiencing water shortages. “There are plans to expand in the other boroughs of Athens that the Hadrian Aqueduct runs [through],” says Christos Giovanopoulos. “But also we have started a collaboration with another five, six cities in Europe that combine cultural heritage with water heritage to make more green, sustainable and livable cities.’’

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