Drainage and Sewerage Systems at Ancient Athens, Greece, 2014. E. Chiotis and L. Chioti (original) (raw)

A well organized infrastructure for water supply, rain water drainage and sewers, as well as a municipal service for the collection and disposal of lavatory waste existed in Athens since the 5th century BC. Drainage and sewerage works were adapted to the topography, the natural network of streams and rivers, the streets and the moat trench of the fortification. The local drainage basin of ancient Athens is delineated on modern maps and the natural streams are traced and confirmed on the basis of archaeological evidence. It is also documented that these streams were gradually developed into the backbone of an artificial drainage network. Rainwater drainage was of great concern due to the climatic peculiarity of sudden rainstorms which can flood flat areas at once. The so called Great Drain in the Athenian Agora was the first torrent transformed into a stone built channel in the early 5th century BC, designed mainly to drain rainwater in the flat area of the Agora, the political center of Athens; the channel was covered with stone plates and served as a street too. More or less, all streams of the flat terrain north of the Acropolis within the city walls were gradually incorporated into an integrated drainage network. Houses and workshops were drained through tile pipes which transferred the sewage into bigger U-shaped pipelines along the streets or directly into stone-built channels arranged along streams. Alternatively, drainage galleries were excavated at shallow depth in the soft basement rock to drain flat or swampy areas. The development of the drainage network all over the city and the application of rather standardized techniques are noted.