Audio tour Ancient Rome - 753 BC - 476 AD

The ancient Romans had developed water supply systems. Drinking water came to the Roman cities from the mountains thanks to the aqueducts. The aqueduct is a complex engineering structure that looks like great bridge.

In the ancient city on seven hills since its foundation, intensive construction was carried out, the beginning of which was laid by the first king of Rome Tarquinius Priscus. He built a canal for draining wetlands in the Tiber Valley.

Roman houses looked like the fortresses. They were divided into the domuses - small buildings for one family and the insulas - multi-storey buildings for a large number of families. In most cases, the buildings did not have water pipes. Water was bought from water carries or drawn in the fountains on the street. In some insulas, there was running water on the ground floor if the building was not far from the term (baths).

In ancient Rome, the problem of street pollution was more relevant than in other ancient cities. Garbage was thrown into the street. In addition, narrow streets could hardly accommodate ordinary citizens and horse movement. To maintain the sanitary condition on the streets, the Laws of the Twelve Tables were adopted, in which the measures for garbage collection were prescribed.

Water pipes and fountains (from the Latin "fontis" - source) were a characteristic feature of Ancient Rome. The Romans had a penchant for the fountains, so a fountain or a pool was in the houses of every wealthy Roman. Water supplies daily gave 1.5 million cubic meters of water to the city. Water was supplied to the houses both through underground pipes and through aqueducts (a water supply system that was located above water sources).

The Romans had public restrooms, as did the Greeks. They were distinguished by convenience, equipped with marble seats, connected to a water supply system. In ancient Rome for the first time public toilets appeared on the streets and in the baths. These were sedentary toilets. After defecation the Romans carried out sanitary procedures with a special sponge on a stick. At first, only noble men could use such toilet. The restroom was located on the main market street. It was not only a room for natural needs, but also a place for communication, conclusion of transactions, a kind of club. There were no partitions or doors that are available in modern public restrooms. The visitors discussed the news, resolved the business issues. The most distinguished citizens had private places that were previously heated by slaves, because it was unpleasant to sit on a cool stone. Sewage went into the drains under the seats, from which they were washed with running water through ceramic pipes into special collectors.

When Roman emperor Titus Flavius Vespasian noticed how many people visited public restrooms, he decided to make them accessible to all men of the city, but for a fee. We find information about this in the book of Roman historian Guy Suetonius Tranquillus The Life of the Twelve Caesars. Often Vespasian is credited with the dictum "Money does not smell".

The centralized sewage system in Rome is called - Cloaca Maxima (Great Cloaca). It began to be built in the 6th-5th centuries BC. At first it was a drainage system for draining water from the lowlands between the Roman hills. Cloak Maxima is an about 300 m long canal made from tuff and travertine. Great Cloaca  is an outstanding engineering project that raises Roman civilization over other world civilizations. After the fall of Rome, in European cities sewers appeared only after 20 centuries.

The Romans attached great importance to sewer systems. They even created the Goddess Cloacina - the keeper of sewer structures