Home Architecture Aqueducts beyond the borders of the Roman Empire.

Aqueducts beyond the borders of the Roman Empire.

Transporting water.

1

Siliserh Lake Palace Aqueduct.
Alwar, Rajasthan, India.

Before water pipes, majestic structures known as aqueducts spanned thousands of kilometers to bring water home to people from distant lakes and rivers with the ancient Romans marveling at building such water channels of enormous sizes. However, they weren’t the only ones with the know how. Down in India, though on a significantly smaller scale, the Rajputs of medieval Alwar also used aqueduct technology to channel water long distance to fill-up their artificial palace ponds, hydrate their gardens and satiate parched throats.

Case in point: The nine kilometer long aqueduct enroute to the Siliserh Lake Palace in north eastern Rajasthan. Supported on numerous arches, this sturdy water conduit transported the fresh cool water of the Siliserh straight down to the city of Alwar, non-stop, till changing times put it out of work in favour of far less grander inventions. Large portions of the robust marvel still stand intact today and visitors need only to stop their cars for a while to gaze upon this incredible feat of ancient engineering, that like all its kind, evolved from the Harappan prototypes – usually accepted as the earliest aqueducts in the world.

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