How Did Rome Build The Aqueducts

In the history of the world there have been many great empires and world powers that dominated the globe at the peak of their powers. One of, if not the greatest empire ever to exist is the Roman Empire, it’s rule lasted from 31 B.C. to 476 A.D. and was a major influence on culture, especially Western Civilization. In order for Rome to become the powerhouse it did, they had to find an efficient way to get clean water to and from the city and anywhere else they may need, so they created the aqueducts in order to do just that. Aqueducts are huge stone structures that almost look like a bridge, except it carries water from one place to another and uses a combination of pipes, slopes, and tunnels. The aqueducts were essential for the Roman empire
They needed to provide an extravagant amount of food if they hoped to feed everyone that was living in the Roman Empire. So to provide the food needed in order to suffice the population needs they chose to expand upon their agricultural areas and grow more crops, in order to grow these crops they needed water and a lot of it. Aqueducts provided that water to the farmers so that they could water their crops and provide food for the people of Rome. The aqueducts provide more water to the Roman people than modern methods, with “about 250 gallons of water per day per person compared to about 125 gallons per day that a typical water authority can supply the average American town,” which is more than enough water to water their crops with. Farmer’s also needed the water they had to be elastic not static, static water was water that was stationary while elastic water was moving. That is why aqueducts were invaluable to farmers as they provided not only tons of water but also tons of elastic water which was needed to grow their
Rome had many mining operations going on all over Europe, one of the most famous mines that Rome set up was the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in modern day Wales.3 To make the mining process a whole lot faster and more efficient they set up aqueducts in Wales near by lakes so they could use the water. They used the water to separate the gold from everything else, essentially eroding the rocks off of the gold through constant water pressure from the aqueducts. The aqueducts were needed in these mines because without them the amount of labor without them would have been significantly higher meaning it would have also taken a longer time to find all of the gold. They also made the whole thing way more cost efficient, because by having less work you have to pay less people to do it. Once they extracted the gold from the mine, Rome used it to strengthen their army so they could expand their empire and maintain control over their existing territories. Rome also used their gold to build infrastructures which is what many people know Rome for, places like the colosseum that kept the people of Rome entertained, or even houses for the average person would help make the Roman Empire more powerful even if it was only slightly. Everything that is funded by these mines is directly because of the aqueducts, generating lots of wealth for the Roman Empire to use for the betterment