Water is the most necessary element for life of the earth. This fact has been one of the important problems to develop human being life. Civilizations and empires of the world history focused on solving that problem in order to make their domination strong.
One of the great samples for this solution was from Roman Empire. According to their principle, they also should dominate the nature. As the empire was widening, the water and food demands were getting more. Roman Emperors developed great Roman engineering due to solve the engineering problems. Water delivery and construction became their expert areas. Still those inventions are directing today’s engineering. Cisterns are the miracles of Roman Engineering. Some of them are so impressive that they still can be functional. The size of the main cisterns is big enough to keep big amount of water. Also we can see many small cisterns under the buildings.
Rome and Constantinople were two capitals and we can come across great cisterns in two capitals. Underground cistern is the biggest cistern of Istanbul. It is located nearby the Saint Sophia. Also we can see many small cisterns under the old city.
There used to be a mega palace of East Roman Empire on the hill where Topkapı Palace was built. We can see the cisterns of this palace even today. According to the archeaologists, they are so big that big amount of water (nearly a dam) can be kept.
Aquadects were the water channels that brought the water to the cities from the source. Aquadect system of Constantinople was one of the longest systems in the world.
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