Water Engineering in Ancient Civilizations

"One of the greatest challenges for society in the 21st century is, without doubt, the sustainable management of water. This is true both for developed and especially, as the millenium goals clearly state, for developing countries. A goal which can only be achieved, as history has proven, by adapting solutions to existing conditions.This constitutes in itself a powerful reason to devote the time to read this book, for it will allow the reader to learn how men and women have done, in every age, what the circumstances required at time. This is a lesson that, unfortunately, we need to learn again nowadays. This is a lesson taught masterfully by Pierre-Louis Viollet, an engineer in love with history, and particularly with those times in which mankind's creativity was most evident. Creativity which, in so many cases, is driven by need. Creativity which is closely related to water. After all, water is essential for human life."—Prof. Enrique CabreraProfessor of Fluid MechanicsUniversidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain

• Introduction Part I 4,000 years of hydraulic development in the East From the era of the early cultivators to the conquests of Alexander the Great Chapter 1. Hydraulics and the birth of civilization Chapter 2. From Mesopotamia to the Syrian shore: the land of water pioneers Chapter 3. Ancient Egypt and the Arabia Felix (in modern Yemen), the rhythm of the flood seasons Chapter 4. The maritime civilizations of the Aegean Sea: urban and agricultural hydraulics Part II The Empires of the Builders Chapter 5. Mathematicians and inventors of Alexandria and the Hellenistic world Chapter 6. Hydraulics in the Roman Empire: driving force of development and symbol of civilization Chapter 7. Beyond Bibliographic References Rome, the East and the Arab world Chapter 8. Rivers, canals, and hydraulic technology in China Chapter 9. The mills of the Middle Ages Conclusion Chronological Table