Piscina mirabilis
The Piscina mirabilis is an underground drinking water - reservoir from Roman time in Miseno in Campania , the ancient Misenum.
The so-called "wonderful basin" by Petrarch served to supply the classis praetoria Misenensis , the strongest of the Roman war fleets , whose base was Misenum until 330 AD.
The reservoir is approx. 70 m long, 25.5 m wide and 15 m high. Its ceiling is supported by 48 columns. It has a capacity of 12,600 m³. It was fed by the Serino aqueduct . The basin is partly walled up, partly dug into the tuff and plastered to make it watertight, but parts of this plaster were scraped off in later centuries and used to make gunpowder .
Tourists can visit the privately owned Piscina mirabilis. There are other Roman cisterns in the area .
literature
- Döring, Mathias: Water for the "Sinus Baianus": Roman engineering and hydraulic structures of the Phlegraeische fields , in: Antike Welt (2002), vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 305-319
See also
Coordinates: 40 ° 47 '43.4 " N , 14 ° 4' 48.4" E