Pont du Gard

In brief

The Pont du Gard is 2,000 years old! Built by the Romans, it is the tallest Roman aqueduct bridge in the world. An aqueduct is a structure that carries water, sometimes over tens of kilometers. The Pont du Gard is the part that crosses the river: a bridge-aqueduct. It is listed by UNESCO, the list of treasures to protect for all humans.

How does it work?

It was not a bridge for cars or carts, but a piece of a long 50-km canal that brought water to the Roman city of Nîmes:

• It crosses the Gardon River to bring water from the Eure spring, near Uzès, to the fountains, baths and homes of Nîmes.
• Three levels of arches: 6 on the first level, 11 on the second, 35 at the very top, which carry the canal.
• An ultra-precise slope: over 50 km, the water drops only 12.6 meters in all. There is no pump: the water flows by itself, very gently, as on a very slight slope!

Key facts

• Height: 48.77 m. Length: 275 m for the preserved upper part (it was longer originally).
• Built in the 1st century, with stone blocks largely laid dry, without mortar; the upper channel was covered with a coating.
• Listed by UNESCO in 1985.

Words to know

• Aqueduct: a structure that carries water.
• Mortar: a mix that glues stones together.

Did you know? The inside of the channel was covered with a red coating made of lime and crushed tiles to make it watertight. Two thousand years later, you can still see it on the walls!

Going further

• The bridge-aqueduct is part of the Nîmes aqueduct, about 50 km long.
• The masonry is largely assembled dry, but the channel and some elements include mortars and coatings.