Photo : Krzysztof Golik / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Pont du Gard
The Pont du Gard is a Roman three-tier aqueduct bridge that allowed the Nîmes aqueduct to cross the Gardon. It is about 49 metres high and 275 metres long at its upper level. The arches are divided into 6 at the bottom, 11 in the middle and 35 at the top.
Its construction is dated between the 40s and 50s AD and is said to have mobilised about 1,000 workers for five years. The blocks, quarried about 700 metres downstream, could weigh up to six tonnes; the structure was built almost dry, without mortar, the stones being partly bound by oak tenons.
The aqueduct carried water over more than 50 kilometres from the Eure spring, near Uzès, to the ancient city of Nemausus, now Nîmes, at a rate of about 40,000 cubic metres a day. The system stopped working in the early sixth century. Inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1985, the Pont du Gard receives more than 800,000 visitors a year and is among the busiest ancient monuments in France.
