Simple locks to regulate the water level are said to have been used for the first time by Hellenistic engineers in the Bubastis Canal between the Nile and the Red Sea (3rd century BC). The Romans under Trajan also installed a sluice at the exit to the Red Sea to prevent salt water from entering the Nile Delta , while at the other end they improved the flow of water by extending the Bubastis Canal up to the level of today's Cairo . The existence of double locks to overcome height differences has been assumed on various occasions, but has not yet been proven beyond doubt due to a lack of clear archaeological evidence.
Trajan's restoration of the Bubastis Canal, like the Ptolemaic predecessor canal , which was probably first regulated by locks , did not connect the Mediterranean and the Red Sea directly with one another, but rather via the Nile Current. The Roman structure began on the main stream of the Nile at the height of Babylon , 60 km further south of Bilbeis , the beginning of the original Bubastis Canal. The canal finally flowed into the Gulf of Suez near the ancient city of Arsinoe.
Built to circumnavigate the dangerous rapids at the Iron Gate ; Previously detectable on the Serbian bank near Sip over a length of 3,220 m in the area
2-6 Century AD
Danube bypass canal
Inland
According to Prokopios, built to safely pass the remains of the Trajan's Bridge , which obstructed river traffic; excavated
on the Serbian side near Kladovo
In order to avoid the silting up of the port and annual flooding of the city, the construction of the Vespasian-Titus tunnel , a combination of canals and tunnels, began under Vespasian . The work was continued under Titus and probably ended under Antoninus Pius .
Canal projects
The following is a list of Roman canal projects that, for various reasons, were never realized.
Starting from Lake Avern near Puteoli, the canal should run parallel to the Mediterranean Sea, according to Nero; Total length would have 160 Roman miles be
Planned to avoid the long and dangerous circumnavigation of the Peloponnese ; The subject of numerous never actualized channel projects which the Diolkos - Schiffkarrenweg were replaced; serious excavation work was started by Nero but stopped after his death
Another ambitious project: would have connected the Mediterranean with the North Sea via the Rhone, Saône, Moselle and Rhine; assumed knowledge of the double lock in antiquity, but there is no clear evidence of this; however, the plan was ultimately dropped not for technical reasons, but because of political intrigue
To facilitate the transport of goods from the hinterland to the coast; Subject of a surviving correspondence between governor Pliny the Younger and Emperor Trajan; should have overcome a height difference of 32 m
^ Klaus Grewe : Tunnel. The development of technology from the beginnings to the end of the Middle Ages In: Ferrum. News from the Iron Library, Georg Fischer AG Foundation Volume 80, 2008, pp. 10–12 ( online )
Siegfried Froriep (1986): “A waterway in Bithynia. Efforts of the Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans ”, Antike Welt , 2nd special no., Pp. 39–50
Klaus Grewe (2008): "Tunnels and Canals", in: Oleson, John Peter (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World , Oxford University Press, pp. 319–336, ISBN 978-0- 19-518731-1
Frank Gardner Moore (1950): "Three Canal Projects, Roman and Byzantine", in: American Journal of Archeology , Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 97-111
Hadwiga Schörner (2000): “Artificial shipping canals in antiquity. The so-called ancient Suez Canal ”, in: Skyllis , Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 28–43
D. Tudor (1974): Les ponts romains du Bas-Danube , Bibliotheca Historica Romaniae Études, Vol. 51, Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, Bucharest, pp. 47-134
KD White (1984): Greek and Roman Technology , Thames and Hudson, London, pp. 110-112; 227-229, Table 6
Charlotte Wikander (2000): "Canals", in: Wikander, Örjan (Ed.): Handbook of Ancient Water Technology , Technology and Change in History, Vol. 2, Brill, Leiden, pp. 321-330, ISBN 90-04 -11123-9
