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The Alcantarilla Dam is a ruined
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
gravity dam in
Mazarambroz,
Toledo province,
Castilla-La Mancha,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, dating to the 2nd century BC.
The toponym "Alcantarilla" means conduit and is of
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
origin:
[It is the diminutive of "alcántara" from the Arabic word ''al-QanTarah'' (القنطرة) meaning "the bridge".] the Latin name is unknown.
The dam is believed to be the oldest dam in Spain, and is possibly the oldest known Roman dam. It was high and at least long.
The dam and reservoir were part of the water supply system of the city of Toletum (
Toledo). They were constructed on a tributary of the
River Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to e ...
. The water was conveyed to the city by an
aqueduct which passed through
Layos.
Structure
The structure appears to have been similar to the surviving
Proserpina Dam near
Merida, an earth dam with a stone
retaining wall
Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides.
Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...
.
The upstream retaining wall consists of two parallel rubble-masonry walls about thick, separated by a concrete-filled space approximately wide. The upstream side of the wall was faced with cut stone blocks.
Conservation
The structure has been in ruins for a long time. There has been speculation that it was not strong enough to cope with a large volume of water. It was possibly breached in the Roman era.
Another possibility is that the masonry collapsed upstream, perhaps by the pressure of the earth fill when the water was low, since, unlike later dams, it was not buttressed on the upstream side.
The remains of Toledo's Roman water supply system are partly protected by a heritage designation (
Bien de Interés Cultural
A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries.
The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" (" goods" in the economic sense) and incl ...
).
See also
*
List of Roman dams and reservoirs
This is a list of Roman dams and reservoirs. The study of Roman dam-building has received little scholarly attention in comparison to their other civil engineering activities, even though their contributions in this field have been ranked alon ...
*
Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome ...
*
Roman engineering
Notes
References
*
Further reading
*
*
*
Roman dams in Spain
Gravity dams
Ancient Roman buildings and structures in the province of Toledo
Water supply of Toledo, Spain
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