Ancient hydraulic works

Athens Clepsydra

Hydrosystem:Athens
Use: Urban Water Supply
Construction era: Classical
Types: Fountain
Operation era: Classical
Location: Greece - Athens
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The Athenians in the 5th century B.C. tried to supply water to the city. The first habitants chose the Acropolis for their residences due to the natural protection and the existence of three springs (Pappas, 1999), with the most famous Clepsydra spring. In the begging of 5th century B.C. Kimon transformed the spring into a fountain. In the 10th century rocks fell into the fountain, so a special modulation was needed. During Christian era, at the church of St. Apostoloi is built onto the fountain. In 1822 Kiriakos Pittakis discovered the Clepsydra fountain. Though, these natural springs were not capable of satisfying the town’s water requirements. Hence the Athenians used two ways of water collection; a) the use of the under current, via the opening of small wells and the use of pluvial water via the construction of cisterns. In addition to that, they used water from both streams of the city, Kiffisos and Ilyssos, whose current unfortunately was restricted during summer for water supply.

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