Petra - Oasis in the Desert - Water Engineering skills of the ancients
Hope there is an up and coming group of engineers who are studying. preserving and implementing some of these ancient, beautifully engineered water systems.
The water supply and distribution system of the Nabataean city of Petra in southwestern Jordan is such a system.
Fascinating:
by Charles R. Ortloff
The water supply and distribution system of the Nabataean city of Petra in southwestern Jordan has been explored and mapped. Analysis of the system indicates exploitation of all possible water resources using management techniques that balance reservoir storage capacity with continuous flow pipeline systems to maintain a constant water supply throughout the year. Nabataean Petra was founded c. 300 BC; urban development progressed with later Roman administration of the city starting at AD 106; Byzantine occupation continued to the seventh century AD. Trade networks that extended throughout much of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world intersected at Petra, and brought not only strategic and economic prominence, but also impetus to develop water resources fully to sustain demands of increasing population and city elaboration. City development was influenced by artistic, cultural and technological borrowings from Seleucid, Syro-Phoenician, Greek and Roman civilizations; the Petra water-distribution system included hydraulic technologies derived from these contacts as well as original technical innovations that helped to maintain the high living standard of city dwellers throughout the centuries. Analysis of the Nabataean water network indicates design criteria that promote stable flows and use sequential particle-settling basins to purify potable water supplies. They also promote open channel flows within piping at critical (maximum) flow rates that avoid leakage associated with pressurized systems and have the design function to match the spring supply rate to the maximum carrying capacity of a pipeline. This demonstration of engineering capability indicates a high degree of cognitive skill in solving complex hydraulic problems to ensure a stable water supply and may be posited as a key reason behind the many centuries of flourishing city life.
http://www.sewerhistory.org/articles/whregion/mideast/water%20system%20petra%20jordan.pdf
The water supply and distribution system of the Nabataean city of Petra in southwestern Jordan
Historical background of Petra's water-management strategies
It is clear that many exterior cultural, political and technological influences colour the history of Petra. Consequently, the water-supply system may be expected to reflect borrowings from the best civil engineering practices of neighbouring civilizations and innovations derived from demands of the complex topography and limited water resource base of the area. Innovations derived from direct experience of desert water-conservation measures are also to be expected given the nomadic background of the Nabataeans. Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Minoan and Greek civilizations all utilized piping systems for water supply and wastewater drainage. For example, the Temple at Knossos (Crete) at 2100 BC incorporated systems of conical, interlocking, terracotta piping elements in the main palace water system; later, the Hellenic Temple of Artemis (Turkey) dating to 800 BC incorporated strings of socketed, mortared, terracotta pipes as well as lead-pipe segments joined by stone connectors to transport water from nearby springs. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC), incorporated a high-level reservoir from which water was delivered to terraces and fountains through hydrostatically pressurized terracotta pipelines. Egyptian copper and brass piping systems associated with 5th Dynasty Temples at Abusir form part of temple drainage systems to the Nile. Athens in the 6-7th century BC and Olynthos had systems of interlocking terracotta pipes sealed by mortar, while the Ionian city of Priene (Turkey) in the third century BC had elaborate terracotta piping networks complete with filtration systems to purify water prior to distribution to city fountains (Ortloff & Crouch 1998). In concept, many of these systems are quite similar to those observed at Petra, indicating some use of previously-established technologies from surrounding societies. New learning gained through years of trade activity to many corners of the ancient world would have provided yet further sources of hydraulic knowledge. An early example of the Nabataean ability to learn from prior technologies is the 27-km-long Humeima canal from springs in the Sharma Mountains to a Wadi Rum outpost, attributed to Obadas I (96-86 BC) (Taylor 2001). This subterranean canal indicates that low-angle surveying technology was already understood — perhaps a borrowing from Greek and Roman geometric traditions (Cohen & Drabkin 1966; Lewis 2001). Combined with hydraulics knowledge from earlier sources this canal demonstrated it was possible to design a canal that matched spring output to canal carrying capacity.
These examples indicate that while knowledge of piping systems was widespread in archaic times, initial use was mostly associated with elite civil and temple structures. Canal-building technology, on the other hand, was widespread throughout the ancient Middle East and primarily used for agricultural purposes. Gradually it was extended to city-wide piping networks — an idea reaching maximum extent in later Roman cities where branch piping fed individual living quarters. An early technology base, utilizing pipeline and canal systems, existed well before Nabataean times and was surely available to aid in the planning and development of Petra's water system. Contact with many cities benefiting from the Roman revival of water-supply systems (Ortloff & Crouch 2001; Crouch 1993) undoubtedly accelerated knowledge of citywide water systems that could be used at Petra. The limited water resources (springs and rainfall capture) and complex mountainous terrain of the Petra area, however, meant that old ideas required new thinking to produce a distributed water system that provided a constant, year-round water supply, given variations of seasonal rainfall and spring flow. The story to be told here relates to the archaeological record of Nabataean solutions to the water-supply demands of a large urban population. As will be demonstrated, modern computer simulation of hydraulic phenomena within ancient piping systems can reveal further knowledge underlying Nabataean pipeline design and water management and reveal subtle aspects of their contribution to the hydraulic sciences.
Description of the Petra water supply and distribution system
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-kadesh-barnea-petra-water-supply-of-petra-charles-r-ortloff-2005.htm
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