An ë

 is a water supply or navigable channel (conduit)

constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any
system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this
purpose. In a more restricted use, ë

 (occasionally ë  
)
applies to any bridge or viaduct that transports waterȄinstead of a path, road
or railwayȄacross a gap. Large navigable aqueducts are used as transport links
for boats or ships. Aqueducts must span a crossing at the same level as the
watercourses on each side. The word is derived from the Latin ë
ë ("water")
and 
 ("to lead").
 Although particularly associated with the Romans, aqueducts were
devised much earlier in Greece and the Near East and Indian subcontinent,
where peoples such as the Egyptians and Harappans built sophisticated
irrigation systems. Roman-style aqueducts were used as early as the 7th
century BC, when the Assyrians built an 80 km long limestone aqueduct, 10 m
high and 300 m wide, to carry water across a valley to their capital city,
Nineveh. In the new world, when the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán was
discovered in the middle of the second millennium, it was watered by two
aqueducts.
 In modern times, the largest aqueducts of all have been built
in the United States to supply the country's biggest cities. The Catskill
Aqueduct carries water to New York City over a distance of 120 miles
(190 km), but is dwarfed by aqueducts in the far west of the country,
most notably the Colorado River Aqueduct, which supplies the Los
Angeles area with water from the Colorado River nearly 400 km to the
east and the 714.5 km California Aqueduct, which runs from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Lake Perris. The Central
Arizona Project is the largest and most expensive aqueduct
constructed in the United States. It stretches 336 miles from its source
near Parker, Arizona to the metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson.
A modern version of aqueduct is a pipeline bridge.
Coloëo R  A


 Historically, agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts
to irrigate crops. Archimedes invented the water screw to raise water
for use in irrigation of croplands.

Another use for aqueducts is to supply large cities with

drinking water. Some of the Roman aqueducts still supply water to
Rome today. In California, United States, three large aqueducts supply
water over hundreds of miles to the Los Angeles area. Two are from the
Owens River area and a third is from the Colorado River.
 In more recent times, aqueducts were used for
transportation purposes to allow canal barges to cross ravines or
valleys. During the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century,
aqueducts were constructed as part of the boom in canal-building.

In modern civil engineering projects, detailed study and

analysis of open channel flow is commonly required to support flood
control, irrigation systems, and large water supply systems when an
aqueduct rather than a pipeline is the preferred solution.
 In the past, aqueducts often had channels made of earth or
other porous materials but significant amounts of water are lost
through such unlined aqueducts. As water gets increasingly scarce,
these canals are being lined with concrete, polymers or impermeable
soil. In some cases, a new aqueduct is built alongside the old one
because it cannot be shut down during construction.
èThe Pont du Gard in southern France
èBarbegal aqueduct, France
èAqueduto de São Sebastião, in Coimbra, Portugal
èSanta Clara Aqueduct, in Vila do Conde, Portugal
èEifel aqueduct, Germany
èCaesarea Maritima, Israel
èKavala, Greece
èPatras, Greece
èAqueduct of Segovia, Spain
èAcueducto de los Milagros, Mérida, Spain
èTarragona, Spain
èAlmuñécar, Spain (5 aqueducts Ȃ 4 still in use)
èValens Aqueduct, Istanbul, Turkey
èAqua Augusta, Italy
èAqua Claudia and the Anio Novus, as part of the Porta Maggiore, Rome,
Italy
èSkopje Aqueduct, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
an Mat Saman Aqueduct, Kedah, Malaysia Ȃ built between 1900 and 1909