Pont du Gard Aqueduct

by Steve Templeton

Title

Pont du Gard Aqueduct

Artist

Steve Templeton

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photograph

Description

I spent hours at this fascinating structure!

In the south of France, about 25 kilometres west of Avignon, you’ll find the Pont du Gard. This enormous limestone bridge, built by the Romans, is an engineering masterpiece. The Pont du Gard bridge was never intended to be used for people to cross. It was built as part of an aqueduct that was 50 kilometres long and stretched from a spring at Uzès down to the colony at Nîmes.

The water that it brought was used, of course, for drinking. But it was also used for sanitation and to fill impressive Roman baths. The aqueduct provided an average of about 600 litres of water a day for each of the 50,000 inhabitants of Nîmes.

The top of the Pont du Gard is 49 metres above the river. It is 274 metres long and, at the bottom, 9 metres wide. One of the reasons it looks so impressive is because it has three layers of arches – one of the few Roman bridges that had that many.

Ah, France! It seemed to me the whole country was just one fantastic photo opportunity after another! Any direction I turned, there was something photo worthy. I teach my photography students, that if they wish to take more interesting photos, they need to travel to somewhere more interesting than their usual or current haunts. The entire country of France fulfills that requirement splendidly for this West Texas native.

Uploaded

June 15th, 2022

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