DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62355#0068
24
BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS,
AQUEDUCT NEAR PYRGO.
" Relic of nobler days, and noblest arts."—Byron.
This fine remain of by-gone industry and taste is indifferently ascribed to
the Emperor Valens, and to Justinian; no positive record of its date or founder
being now in existence. It spans a lovely hill-embosomed valley near Pyrgo,
and is one of several aqueducts still in existence between the city of Constan-
tinople, and the beautiful, romantic, and Frank-peopled hamlet of Belgrade,
on the Black Sea.
The necessity of an ample supply of water to a population of nearly eight
hundred thousand souls, and the frequency of drought in the capital, have led
to great care and some ingenuity in its conveyance to the cisterns and reservoirs
of the city from the numerous streams that fall from the mountains which fence
the Euxine, and the rivulets that irrigate the valleys among them. Every
rill, however apparently trifling, is arrested in its progress, when it descends from
a height into the lower lands; by which means the valleys become inundated,
and form deep and extensive lakes, whence the water is conveyed in tile pipes
along the mountains, to pour its volume into the aqueducts which span the
valleys, and give a noble character to the wild landscape. These artificial reser-
voirs are called bendts, and were originally formed by the Greeks; and the
dams by which they are shut in are mounds, faced with marble, sculptured in
oriental devices and characters, which are extremely imposing, and even magni-
ficent. The Turks are, however, suffering the aqueducts of their predecessors to
fall slowly to decay; and have supplied their places by detached square hydraulic
pillars, sufficiently ingenious in their construction to merit description. A small
reservoir is on the summit of each: and tubes, similar to those laid along the
heights, pour the water into this tank on one side, and discharge it on the other.
Each pillar is six inches lower than that which preceded it; and thus a gradual
descent is produced along the tops of these suy-terrasi, or columns, from the
mountains to Stamboul; and as they are spread in considerable numbers over
the country, the supply is generally abundant, though it sometimes fails when
the season is unusually dry, as in the years 18^2 and 1836.
BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS,
AQUEDUCT NEAR PYRGO.
" Relic of nobler days, and noblest arts."—Byron.
This fine remain of by-gone industry and taste is indifferently ascribed to
the Emperor Valens, and to Justinian; no positive record of its date or founder
being now in existence. It spans a lovely hill-embosomed valley near Pyrgo,
and is one of several aqueducts still in existence between the city of Constan-
tinople, and the beautiful, romantic, and Frank-peopled hamlet of Belgrade,
on the Black Sea.
The necessity of an ample supply of water to a population of nearly eight
hundred thousand souls, and the frequency of drought in the capital, have led
to great care and some ingenuity in its conveyance to the cisterns and reservoirs
of the city from the numerous streams that fall from the mountains which fence
the Euxine, and the rivulets that irrigate the valleys among them. Every
rill, however apparently trifling, is arrested in its progress, when it descends from
a height into the lower lands; by which means the valleys become inundated,
and form deep and extensive lakes, whence the water is conveyed in tile pipes
along the mountains, to pour its volume into the aqueducts which span the
valleys, and give a noble character to the wild landscape. These artificial reser-
voirs are called bendts, and were originally formed by the Greeks; and the
dams by which they are shut in are mounds, faced with marble, sculptured in
oriental devices and characters, which are extremely imposing, and even magni-
ficent. The Turks are, however, suffering the aqueducts of their predecessors to
fall slowly to decay; and have supplied their places by detached square hydraulic
pillars, sufficiently ingenious in their construction to merit description. A small
reservoir is on the summit of each: and tubes, similar to those laid along the
heights, pour the water into this tank on one side, and discharge it on the other.
Each pillar is six inches lower than that which preceded it; and thus a gradual
descent is produced along the tops of these suy-terrasi, or columns, from the
mountains to Stamboul; and as they are spread in considerable numbers over
the country, the supply is generally abundant, though it sometimes fails when
the season is unusually dry, as in the years 18^2 and 1836.