Everything about The Valens Aqueduct totally explained
The
Valens Aqueduct (meaning "Aqueduct of the grey falcon";, meaning simply "
aqueduct") was the major water-providing system of medieval
Constantinople (modern
Istanbul, in
Turkey). Restored by several
Ottoman Sultans, it's one of the most important landmarks of the city.
Location
The aqueduct stands in Istanbul, in the quarter of
Fatih, and spans the valley between the hills occupied today by the
Istanbul University and the
Mosque of Fatih. The surviving section is 921 meters long, about 50 meters less than the original length. The
Atatürk Bulvarı highway passes under its arches.
History
Byzantine period
The construction of a water supply system for the city (then still called
Byzantium) had begun already under Emperor
Hadrian. Under
Constantine I, when the city was rebuilt and increased in size, the system needed to be greatly expanded to meet the needs of the rapidly growing population.
The Valens aqueduct, which originally got its water from the slopes of the hills between
Kağıthane and the
Sea of Marmara, was merely one of the terminal points of this new wide system of aqueducts and canals - which eventually reached over 250 km in total length, the longest such system of Antiquity - that stretched throughout the hill-country of
Thrace and provided the capital with water. Once in the city, the water was stored in three open reservoirs and over a hundred underground
cisterns, such as the
Basilica Cistern, with a total capacity of over 1 million cubic meters.
The exact date that construction on the aqueduct began is uncertain, but it was completed in the year 368 during the reign of
Emperor Valens, whose name it bears. It lay along the valley between the third and fourth hills of
Constantinople, occupied respectively at that time by the
Capitolium and the
Church of the Holy Apostles. According to tradition, the aqueduct was built using the stones of the walls of
Chalcedon, pulled down as punishment in 366 after the
revolt of
Procopius. The structure was inaugurated in the year 373 by the
urban prefect Klearchos, who commissioned a
Nymphaeum Maius in the
Forum of Theodosius, that was supplied with water from the aqueduct.
After a severe drought in 382,
Theodosius I built a new line (the
Aquaeductus Theodosiacus), which got water from the northeastern region known today as Belgrade Forest. Other works were executed under
Theodosius II, who decided to distribute the water of the aqueduct exclusively to the Nymphaeum, the
Baths and the
imperial palace. The aqueduct, possibly damaged by an earthquake, was restored under
Emperor Justinian I, who connected it with the Cistern of the
Basilica of
Illus (identified today either with the
Yerebatan or with the
Binbirdirek (
Turkish: "thousand and one columns") cistern, and was finally repaired in 576 by
Justin II, who built a separated pipe.
The aqueduct was cut by the
Avars during the
siege of 626, and the water supply was reestablished only after the great drought of 758 by Emperor
Constantine V. The Emperor had the whole water supply system repaired by a certain Patrikios, who used a large labour force coming from the whole of Greece and Anatolia.
Other maintenance works were accomplished under Emperors
Basil II (in 1019) and
Romanos III Argyros.
The last Byzantine Emperor who took care of the aqueduct was
Andronikos I Komnenos. Neither during the
Latin Empire nor during the
Palaiologan age were any repair works executed, but by that time the population of the city had shrunk to about 40,000 - 50,000 inhabitants, so that the water supply wasn't a very important issue anymore. Nevertheless, according to
Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, a
Castilian diplomat who traveled to Constantinople en route to an embassy to
Timur in 1403, the aqueduct was still functioning.
Ottoman period
After the
Fall of Constantinople (1453), Sultan
Mehmet II repaired the whole water supply, which was then used to bring water to the imperial palaces of
Eski Sarayi (the first palace, built on the third hill) and
Topkapı Sarayi, and connected it with a new line coming from the northeast. The great earthquake of 1509 destroyed the arches near the
Mosque of Şehzade, which was erected some time later. This gave rise to the hypothesis that they were cut, in order to allow a better view from the nearby mosque. The repairs to the water-supplying net continued under
Beyazid II, who added a new line.
Around the middle of the 16th century,
Suleyman I rebuilt the arches (now
ogival) 47 up to 51 (counted from the west) near the Mosque of Şehzade, and commissioned the Architect
Sinan to add two more lines, coming from the Forest of Belgrade (
Belgrat Ormanlı). The increased flow allowed the distribution of water to the
Kιrkçeşme ("Forty fountains") quarter, situated along the aqueduct on the
Golden Horn side, and so called after the many fountains built there under Suleyman.
Under Sultan
Mustafa II, five arches (41-45) were restored, respecting the ancient form. An inscription
in situ, dated 1696/97, commemorates the event. His successor
Ahmed III repaired again the distribution net.
In 1912, a 50-meter-long part of the aqueduct near the Mosque of Fatih was pulled down. In the same period, a
Taksim ("distribution plant",
lit. 'division') at the east end was erected.
Description
The Aqueduct of Valens had a length of 971 m and a maximum height of ca. 29 m (63 m above sea level) with a constant slope of 1:1000. Arches 1-40 and 46-51 belong to the time of Valens, arches 41-45 to Mustafa II, and those between 52 and 56 to Suleyman I. Arches 18-73 have a double order, the others a single order.
Originally the structure ran perfectly straight, but during the construction of the
Mosque of Fatih - for unknown reasons - it was bent in that section. The
masonry isn't regular, and uses
ashlar blocks and bricks. The first row of arches is built with well-squared stone blocks, the upper row is built with four to seven courses of stones alternated with a bed of smaller material (
opus caementitium) clamped with iron
cramps. The width of the aqueduct varies from 7.75 m to 8.24 m. The pillars are 3.70 m thick, and the arches of the lower order are four meters wide.
The water comes from two lines from the northeast and one coming from the northwest, which join together outside the walls, near the
Adrianople Gate (Edirne Kapı). Near the east end of the aqueduct there's a distribution plant, and another lies near
Hagia Sophia. The water feeds the zone of the imperial palace. The daily discharge in the 1950s amounted to 6,120 cubic meters. During Byzantine times, two roads important for the topography of medieval Constantinople crossed under the eastern section of the aqueduct.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Valens Aqueduct'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://valens_aqueduct.totallyexplained.com">Valens Aqueduct Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
