Photos of the Beautiful Roman Pont du Gard Aqueduct

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Photos of the Spectacular Beautiful Roman Pont du Gard Aqueduct spanning the Gardon River Gorge. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams. (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of the Spectacular Beautiful Roman Pont du Gard Aqueduct

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Photos of the Roman Pont du Gard Aqueduct, Nimes, France.

Nimes Water Supply

The ancient Roman City of Nemausus, present day Nimes, became a Roman colony in about 28 BC It was the capital of the Roman province of Narbonne under Augustus. The city grew quickly to a population of about 60,000 and therefore needed a reliable water supply.

The 50 KM Long Aqueduct

This was achieved by building a 50 km (31 miles) long aqueduct from an inland spring at Uzes to Nimes. The aqueduct has to cross a hilly terrain and to wind around hill sides. The distance from Uzes to Nimes is 50 km (30miles). The height difference is just a drop of 17 m (56ft) a gradient of only 1 in 3,000. This would be a major engineering feat today but the fact that the Roman hydraulic engineers managed to build the aqueduct 2000 years ago demonstrates the amazing skills they had.

The aqueduct required canals to be built following the contours of the land. When this was not possible tunnels were dug through hills.

The Pont Du Gard Aqueduct

The Pont du Gard aqueduct bridge that crosses the Gardon River and links two tunnels. It is an incredible piece of engineering and stand intact as the Romans built it today.

Design of the Pont du Gard

The Pont du Gard is made up of three tiers of arches with the aqueduct running along the top. The highest point of the Pont du Gard is 48.8 m (160ft ) and its span is 360 m (393 yards). Incredibly it only drops only 2.5 cm (1in) over its length. This is an amazingly accurate piece of engineering.

It is estimated that the Pont du Gard would have carried a staggering 200,000 cubic meters (44 million gallons) a day.

The Romans built with rounded arches which were not as strong as the later pointed arches so it means that the arch piers had to be thick.

It took an estimated 50,000 tons of yellow limestone rock to build the Pont du Gard. Its central arch which spans the river is 25 m (82 ft) wide making it one of the biggest known Roman arches.

How the Pont du Gard Survived

In the 6th century AD the Western Roman Empire went into decline and the lack of maintenance of the Pont du Gard meant that the aqueduct became blocked up and stopped working.

The Pont du Gard survived in tact because it was an important transport bridge across the River Gardon and became a toll bridge.