The Pont du Gard Photo: Pont du Gard

The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct, which is located in the French Department of Gard. The name literally translates as "bridge over Gar".

The Pont du Gard is the highest of the Roman aqueducts, amounting to 275 meters long and 49 meters in height. Thus, the bridge is about the same height as a 16-storey modern house.

The Pont du Gard was built of six ton stones without lime application. It is believed that the Pont du Gard was built by the order of commander Mark Agrippa – friend of the Emperor Octavian Augustus in 19 year BC. However, according to current research, the construction of the bridge was completed only in the middle of the first century of our era. The Pont du Gard was part of a 50 km long aqueduct that connected the two ancient Roman city in the South of France – Nimes and Uzès.

The Pont du Gard is a three-tiered aqueduct, at each tier is a different number of arches: thirty-five arches in the upper tier, and ran the plumbing. In the middle level there are eleven arches, and at the bottom is only six, of the six arches bearing part of the bridge is the only one. The width of the arch decreases as it approaches the shore.

According to modern estimates, thanks to this aqueduct, the inhabitants of Nimes, where there were about 50 thousand people, could daily spending 400 litres of water each.

Pont-du-Gard served as a water supply until the fall of the Western Roman Empire, then it was sometimes used as a bridge. But already in the VIII century aqueduct was practically disabled: wind and time have destroyed many of his plots, and local residents broke out stone for building. In addition, in order to bridge drove larger vehicles, had to hollow out part of the supports of the aqueduct that could cause a collapse of the whole structure. However, the Pont du Gard stood for over a thousand years, and traffic on the Pont-du-Garou eventually ceased to exist only in 1747, when it was built near the modern bridge. And in 1855 aqueduct was restored by Napoleon III.

Since 1985, the Pont du Gard is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is believed that this bridge is depicted on the reverse side of the banknotes are in denominations of 5 euros.

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The Pont du Gard