Cantalloc Aqueducts - photos

[Altair]

Located near the Peruvian city of Nazca, the Cantalloc Aqueducts are a series of subterranean aqueducts built by the Nazca people about 1,500 years ago.






Previously:

Controlling irrigation flow using a water-filled bag - GIF
Tractor-mounted irrigation pump - GIF
Irrigation ditch digging dog - GIF
Irrigation trench cutter - GIF
Simple irrigation siphon - GIF

[mwmkravchenko]

Almost like they were thinkers, and doers!

[Frank S]

Almost like they were thinkers, and doers!

Yep a lot more thinking and doing back then than goes on today it would seem

[old kodger]

Yep a lot more thinking and doing back then than goes on today it would seem

That aint hard.

[mklotz]

Almost like they were thinkers, and doers!

Don't overlook the time element when assessing the ingenuity of ancient people.

The pyramids at Giza were built over periods of time measured in decades. That's time enough to conceive, experimentally test, and refine techniques for solving the problems that must have arisen. We see virtually nothing of the wrong directions and mistakes that must have been discarded. (The step pyramid and the bent pyramid prove that they refined their techniques over long periods of time.)

Similarly for the advanced water collection and storage schemes at Petra. Every infrequent thunderstorm provides evidence of yet untapped runoff channels; carve another collection channel along the lines of wet.

Several European cathedrals collapsed during their construction. We see only the finished product after externally buttressed walls were introduced into the design.

We see virtually nothing of the wooden tools/jigs/scaffolds that were used because wood doesn't survive well except in deep, anaerobic water.

The ancient engineers were probably about as clever as their modern counterparts but in many cases were working with relatively bigger budgets and schedules measured in generations. Time has erased their mistakes so we see only their masterpieces.

[mwmkravchenko]

Agreed Marv. What I take from it is that you were mentioning projects that worked in harmony with the environment. As this one did. And projects that were for lasting grandeur. Many things have been lost to time. I don't believe anything other than human ingenuity had parts in any of these things. Some of the projects were indeed long term. And a few were done rather rapidly. The great pyramid was rather rapid. Giving us an idea of the work force and the economic management required to pull of such a grandios accomplishment. Some of the projects in China were no less impressive for the scale and accomplishment in relatively short time periods. Tomb of the first emperor comes to mind as a shining example.

[WmRMeyers]

Something similar from Persia: https://www.irandestination.com/the-persian-qanat/

[mwmkravchenko]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat

Kind of interesting.