Digging Up Solutions: Parched, Athens Revives Hadrian’s Aqueduct
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While approaching the end of the summer season here in Greece, some unprecedented challenges have emerged. Until now, conversations on climate change focused on rising temperatures and overheating, but a new issue has been added to the equation: water shortage. Both islands and the mainland have reported a struggle to ration water to produce sufficient crops during the year. This, in addition to the overwhelming tourist season, has led to increased pressure on the already limited water supply and heightened concerns about the future of sustainability in the country.
Still, this realization is not entirely gloom and doom, as it has incentivized Greek authorities to take advantage and revive an ancient structure that dates back 2,000 years. Hadrian’s Aqueduct was built around the second century A.D., commissioned by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to satisfy the growing demand for water in Athens. The aqueduct spans approximately 15 miles (24 kilometers) and supplied Athens for more than 1,300 years before it was abandoned during the Ottoman occupation. When Greece became a new, modern state in the 19th century, the aqueduct was revived to battle the growing water shortage, eventually being replaced in the 1920s by the capital’s first reservoir construction, the Marathon dam.
Robert Sayer creator QS:P170,Q15430328, Hadrian’s aqueduct Athens Temple of Minerva – Sayer Robert – 1759, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons
Even though the aqueduct had been inactive for almost a century, the water never stopped running, flowing down from Mount Parnes all the way to the city, passing through seven municipalities: Acharnes, Metamorfosi, Heraklion, Marousi, Halandri, Pilothei-Psychiko and Athens and supplying water for irrigation and other non-drinking uses. Until today, 390 water-wells of the original 456 wells of aqueduct have been located, where 228 of them are visible and 174 can be found in public spaces.
In 2018, the aqueduct’s current restoration project commenced, aiming to preserve the monument, use the water for local irrigation as well as enhance the biodiversity and vegetation of the areas it passes through. So far, the program has raised a lot of cultural awareness through the re-exploitation of water and the regeneration of the routes following the aqueduct. In fact, the municipality of Halandri won the first prize for the 6th International Competition of Urban Innovation of Guangzhou (2023), in the category “Sustainable Management of Cultural Heritage.”
Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, Section of the Hadrianic aqueduct near the Ancient Agora, Athens (14026319616), CC BY-SA 2.0
This is not the first time that Athens has treated part of its “archeology” as a fully functional structure. For decades Athens’s National Garden, has been irrigated through the Peisistrate Aqueduct, which was built in the 6th century BC, and still collects water from the Hymettus mountain. Frankly, this utilization addresses a larger question: Should preserved architectural heritage remain in use or become frozen in time operating as a museum artifact?
This tension between “museumification” and “living use” is becoming increasingly urgent today, since it forces cities to come up with immediate solutions for climate change and rethink sustainability. Specifically, examples such as the Aqua Virgo Aqueduct in Rome, built in 19 BC still supplies water to the city’s fountains.
Similarly, in countries like Iran and Oman, the ancient qanat systems (some even 2,500 years old), still deliver water in fields — viewed as both pieces of cultural heritage and functional infrastructure. Even in agriculture, ancient irrigation channels and Inca terraces are still used in the harsh climates of Andes in Peru. Furthermore, in densely populated cities such as Kyoto and Kanazawa, canals provide water to the gardens, the temples and are even used as modern urban flood prevention structures.
Jean Faure creator QS:P170,Q21458594 , Jean (Giovanni) Faure (1806-1867) – Arch of Claudius (on the Aqua Virgo in Rome) – LDSAL 512, Scharf LXVIII – Burlington House, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons
These examples demonstrate how cultural heritage can remain an integral part of daily life, often providing already established solutions for contemporary problems. Cities do not necessarily have to reinvent the wheel to deal with modern-day challenges; instead, they only need to respect and preserve their archeology, while finding ways to reintroduce it in the urban fabric.
Perhaps the word “preservation” has been misinterpreted. To be more specific, conservation efforts were always associated with sealing off monuments from daily life, treating them as fragile. However, these structures are oftentimes more resilient and more thoughtfully integrated into cities than their modern counterparts. Consequently, by combining existing infrastructure and knowledge with modern technology may offer a very different perspective in regard to a monument’s “living use.” Through their functional activation, these structures remain relevant, keeping history in motion and, in this case, contributing to ecological resilience.
Badseed, Athens Syntagma square antiquities, Portion of the Peisistratian aqueduct that was discovered during the construction of the Athens metro and is now on display at Syntagma square, CC BY-SA 3.0
Gradually, a change is taking root in the we perceive conservation, executing it not just for the sake of preservation itself but reimagining cultural heritage as an active participant in a city’s sustainable future. The question, then, is not whether we can use the past but whether we can learn to live with it responsibly. Hadrian’s Aqueduct embodies this very shift. Once a forgotten relic beneath the streets of Athens may now be the key in saving it from draught and overheating, showing us that the past is not a weight that cities carry forward and are forced to respect, but is actually a resource they can draw from.
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Featured Image: Water Landscapes by Andrea Zamora, 2023 Vision Awards, Special Mention, Drawing – Computer Aided Drawing
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