1.
Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty
2.
Military engineering
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Military engineering is loosely defined as the art and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and communications. Military engineers are responsible for logistics behind military tactics. Modern military engineering differs from civil engineering, in the 20th and 21st centuries, military engineering also includes other engineering disciplines such as mechanical and electrical engineering techniques. According to NATO, military engineering is that engineer activity undertaken, regardless of component or service, Military engineering does not encompass the activities undertaken by those engineers who maintain, repair and operate vehicles, vessels, aircraft, weapon systems and equipment. Military engineering is a subject taught in military academies or schools of military engineering. The construction and demolition tasks related to engineering are usually performed by military engineers including soldiers trained as sappers or pioneers. In modern armies, soldiers trained to perform such tasks while well forward in battle, the word engineer was initially used in the context of warfare, dating back to 1325 when engine’er referred to a constructor of military engines. In this context, engine referred to a machine, i. e. A mechanical contraption used in war, in its place, the term military engineering has come to be used. Modern military engineering can be divided into three main tasks or fields, combat engineering, strategic support, and ancillary support, combat engineering is associated with engineering on the battlefield. Combat engineers are responsible for increasing mobility on the front lines of war such as digging trenches, strategic support is associated with providing service in communication zones such as the construction of airfields and the improvement and upgrade of ports, roads and railways communication. Ancillary support includes provision and distribution of maps as well as the disposal of unexploded warheads, Military engineers construct bases, airfields, roads, bridges, ports, and hospitals. During peacetime before modern warfare, military engineers took the role of civil engineers by participating in the construction of civil-works projects, nowadays, military engineers are almost entirely engaged in war logistics and preparedness. Combat engineers clear routes, repair airfields and harbours, bridge rivers all at top speed, the first civilization to have a dedicated force of military engineering specialists were the Romans, whose army contained a dedicated corps of military engineers known as architecti. This group was pre-eminent among its contemporaries, such military engineering feats would have been completely new, and probably bewildering and demoralizing, to the Gallic defenders. The best known of these Roman army engineers due to his writings surviving is Vitruvius, alexander the Great also used engineers in his army. In ancient times, military engineers were responsible for warfare and building field fortifications, temporary camps. The most notable engineers of ancient times were the Romans and Chinese, the Romans were responsible for constructing fortified wooden camps and paved roads for their legions
3.
History of structural engineering
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The history of structural engineering dates back to at least 2700 BC when the step pyramid for Pharaoh Djoser was built by Imhotep, the first engineer in history known by name. Pyramids were the most common major structures built by ancient civilizations because it is a form which is inherently stable. Another notable engineering feat from antiquity still in use today is the water management system. Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as masons and carpenters. No theory of structures existed and understanding of how structures stood up was extremely limited, knowledge was retained by guilds and seldom supplanted by advances. Structures were repetitive, and increases in scale were incremental, the physical sciences underlying structural engineering began to be understood in the Renaissance and have been developing ever since. The recorded history of structural engineering starts with the ancient Egyptians, in the 27th century BC, Imhotep was the first structural engineer known by name and constructed the first known step pyramid in Egypt. In the 26th century BC, the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed in Egypt and it remained the largest man-made structure for millennia and was considered an unsurpassed feat in architecture until the 19th century AD. Archimedess work on this and his work on calculus and geometry, together with Euclidean geometry, underpin much of the mathematics, the ancient Romans made great bounds in structural engineering, pioneering large structures in masonry and concrete, many of which are still standing today. They include aqueducts, thermae, columns, lighthouses, defensive walls and their methods are recorded by Vitruvius in his De Architectura written in 25 BC, a manual of civil and structural engineering with extensive sections on materials and machines used in construction. One reason for their success is their accurate surveying techniques based on the dioptra, groma, in 1638 Galileo published Dialogues Relating to Two New Sciences, outlining the sciences of the strength of materials and the motion of objects. It was the first establishment of an approach to structural engineering, including the first attempts to develop a theory for beams. This is also regarded as the beginning of structural analysis, the mathematical representation and this was followed in 1676 by Robert Hookes first statement of Hookes Law, providing a scientific understanding of elasticity of materials and their behaviour under load. Specifically, he developed the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation with Daniel Bernoulli circa 1750 - the fundamental theory underlying most structural engineering design, in 1717 Jean Bernoulli wrote to Pierre Varignon explaining the principle of virtual work, while in 1726 Daniel Bernoulli wrote of the composition of forces. In 1757 Leonhard Euler went on to derive the Euler buckling formula, throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, materials science and structural analysis underwent development at a tremendous pace. Though elasticity was understood in theory well before the 19th century, in 1824, Portland cement was patented by the engineer Joseph Aspdin as a superior cement resembling Portland Stone, British Patent no.5022. Developments in concrete continued with the construction in 1848 of a boat built of ferrocement - the forerunner of modern reinforced concrete - by Joseph-Louis Lambot. He patented his system of reinforcement and concrete in 1855
4.
Leonhard Euler
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He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. He is also known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, Euler was one of the most eminent mathematicians of the 18th century, and is held to be one of the greatest in history. He is also considered to be the most prolific mathematician of all time. His collected works fill 60 to 80 quarto volumes, more than anybody in the field and he spent most of his adult life in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in Berlin, then the capital of Prussia. A statement attributed to Pierre-Simon Laplace expresses Eulers influence on mathematics, Read Euler, read Euler, Leonhard Euler was born on 15 April 1707, in Basel, Switzerland to Paul III Euler, a pastor of the Reformed Church, and Marguerite née Brucker, a pastors daughter. He had two sisters, Anna Maria and Maria Magdalena, and a younger brother Johann Heinrich. Soon after the birth of Leonhard, the Eulers moved from Basel to the town of Riehen, Paul Euler was a friend of the Bernoulli family, Johann Bernoulli was then regarded as Europes foremost mathematician, and would eventually be the most important influence on young Leonhard. Eulers formal education started in Basel, where he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother. In 1720, aged thirteen, he enrolled at the University of Basel, during that time, he was receiving Saturday afternoon lessons from Johann Bernoulli, who quickly discovered his new pupils incredible talent for mathematics. In 1726, Euler completed a dissertation on the propagation of sound with the title De Sono, at that time, he was unsuccessfully attempting to obtain a position at the University of Basel. In 1727, he first entered the Paris Academy Prize Problem competition, Pierre Bouguer, who became known as the father of naval architecture, won and Euler took second place. Euler later won this annual prize twelve times, around this time Johann Bernoullis two sons, Daniel and Nicolaus, were working at the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. In November 1726 Euler eagerly accepted the offer, but delayed making the trip to Saint Petersburg while he applied for a physics professorship at the University of Basel. Euler arrived in Saint Petersburg on 17 May 1727 and he was promoted from his junior post in the medical department of the academy to a position in the mathematics department. He lodged with Daniel Bernoulli with whom he worked in close collaboration. Euler mastered Russian and settled life in Saint Petersburg. He also took on a job as a medic in the Russian Navy. The Academy at Saint Petersburg, established by Peter the Great, was intended to improve education in Russia, as a result, it was made especially attractive to foreign scholars like Euler
5.
Buckling
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In science, buckling is a mathematical instability that leads to a failure mode. When a structure is subjected to stress, buckling may occur. Buckling is characterized by a sudden sideways deflection of a structural member and this may occur even though the stresses that develop in the structure are well below those needed to cause failure of the material of which the structure is composed. As an applied load is increased on a member, such as a column, it will become large enough to cause the member to become unstable. Further loading will cause significant and somewhat unpredictable deformations, possibly leading to loss of the members load-carrying capacity. If the deformations that occur after buckling do not cause the collapse of that member. In a mathematical sense, buckling is a bifurcation in the solution to the equations of static equilibrium. At a certain point, under a load, any further load is able to be sustained in one of two states of equilibrium, a purely compressed state or a laterally-deformed state. The ratio of the length of a column to the least radius of gyration of its cross section is called the slenderness ratio. This ratio affords a means of classifying columns and their failure mode, the slenderness ratio is important for design considerations. All the following are approximate values used for convenience, if the load on a column is applied through the center of gravity of its cross section, it is called an axial load. A load at any point in the cross section is known as an eccentric load. However, intermediate-length columns will fail by a combination of direct compressive stress, a short concrete column is one having a ratio of unsupported length to least dimension of the cross section equal to or less than 10. If the ratio is greater than 10, it is considered a long column, timber columns may be classified as short columns if the ratio of the length to least dimension of the cross section is equal to or less than 10. The dividing line between intermediate and long timber columns cannot be readily evaluated, since K depends on the modulus of elasticity and the allowable compressive stress parallel to the grain, it can be seen that this arbitrary limit would vary with the species of the timber. The value of K is given in most structural handbooks, the theory of the behavior of columns was investigated in 1757 by mathematician Leonhard Euler. He derived the formula, the Euler formula, that gives the maximum load that a long, slender. An ideal column is one that is straight, made of a homogeneous material
6.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
7.
Indus Valley Civilisation
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The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation mainly in the northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread, at its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft, the Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings. The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. This Harappan civilisation is called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, as of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan. The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered, a relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistans northwestern Frontier Province as well, other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for example, Dholavira. There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan, many Indus Valley sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them are, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, Harappan Civilisation remains the correct one, according to the common archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot. John wrote, I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway and they were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, convinced there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles of the track running from Karachi to Lahore. In 1872–75, Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal and it was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. J. H. MacKay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the independence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein
8.
Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
9.
Nomad
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A nomad is a member of a community of people who live in different locations, moving from one place to another. Among the various ways nomads relate to their environment, one can distinguish the hunter-gatherer, as of 1995, there were an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world. Nomadic hunting and gathering, following seasonally available wild plants and game, is by far the oldest human subsistence method, pastoralists raise herds, driving them, or moving with them, in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover. Nomadism is also a lifestyle adapted to regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand. For example, many groups in the tundra are reindeer herders and are semi-nomadic and these nomads sometimes adapt the use of high technology such as solar photovoltaics to reduce their dependence on diesel fuel. These groups are known as peripatetic nomads, a nomad is a person with no settled home, moving from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making a living. The word Nomad comes from a Greek word that one who wanders for pasture. Most nomadic groups follow an annual or seasonal pattern of movements and settlements. Nomadic peoples traditionally travel by animal or canoe or on foot, today, some nomads travel by motor vehicle. Most nomads live in tents or other portable shelters, Nomads keep moving for different reasons. Nomadic foragers move in search of game, edible plants, the Australian Aborigines, Negritos of Southeast Asia, and San of Africa, for example, traditionally move from camp to camp to hunt and to gather wild plants. Some tribes of the Americas followed this way of life, Pastoral nomads make their living raising livestock, such as camels, cattle, goats, horses, sheep, or yaks. These nomads travel to find more camels, goats, and sheep through the deserts of Arabia, the Fulani and their cattle travel through the grasslands of Niger in western Africa. Some nomadic peoples, especially herders, may move to raid settled communities or avoid enemies. Nomadic craftworkers and merchants travel to find and serve customers and they include the Lohar blacksmiths of India, the Romani traders, and the Irish Travellers. Most nomads travel in groups of families called bands or tribes and these groups are based on kinship and marriage ties or on formal agreements of cooperation. A council of adult males makes most of the decisions, though some tribes have chiefs, in the case of Mongolian nomads, a family moves twice a year. These two movements would generally occur during the summer and winter, the winter location is usually located near mountains in a valley and most families already have their fixed winter locations
10.
Maritime history
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Maritime history is the study of human activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, as an academic subject, it often crosses the boundaries of standard disciplines, focusing on understanding humankinds various relationships to the oceans, seas, and major waterways of the globe. Nautical history records and interprets past events involving ships, shipping, navigation, historians from many lands have published monographs, popular and scholarly articles, and collections of archival resources. A leading journal is International Journal of Maritime History, a refereed scholarly journal published twice a year by the International Maritime Economic History Association. Based in Canada with an editorial board, it explores the maritime dimensions of economic, social, cultural. For a broad overview, see the four-volume encyclopedia edited by John B, hattendorf, Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History. It contains over 900 articles by 400 scholars and runs 2900 pages, other major reference resources are Spencer Tucker, ed. Naval Warfare, An International Encyclopedia with 1500 articles in 1231, pages, and I. C. B. Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea with 2600 articles in 688 pages, typically, studies of merchant shipping and of defensive navies are seen as separate fields. Inland waterways are included within maritime history, especially inland seas such as the Great Lakes of North America, one approach to maritime history writing has been nicknamed rivet counting because of a focus on the minutiae of the vessel. But revisionist scholars are creating new turns in the study of maritime history and this includes a post-1980s turn towards the study of human users of ships, and post-2000 turn towards seeing sea travel as part of the wider history of transport and mobilities. The earliest representation of a ship under sail appears on a painted disc found in Kuwait dating to the late 5th millennium BC, the Indigenous of the Pacific Northwest are very skilled at crafting wood. Best known for totem poles up to 80 feet tall, they also construct dugout canoes over 60 feet long for everyday use, the earliest seaworthy boats may have been developed as early as 45,000 years ago, according to one hypothesis explaining the habitation of Australia. The Ancient Egyptians had knowledge of sail construction and this is governed by the science of aerodynamics. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Necho II sent out an expedition of Phoenicians, some current historians believe Herodotus on this point, even though Herodotus himself was in disbelief that the Phoenicians had accomplished the act. In early modern India and Arabia the lateen-sail ship known as the dhow was used on the waters of the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, the astrolabe was the chief tool of Celestial navigation in early maritime history. It was invented in ancient Greece and developed by Islamic astronomers, by at least 1117 AD, the Chinese used a magnetic needle that was submersed in a bowl of water, and would point in the southern cardinal direction. The first use of a needle for seafaring navigation in Europe was written of by Alexander Neckham. Around 1300 AD, the pivot-needle dry-box compass was invented in Europe, its cardinal direction pointed north, there was also the addition of the compass-card in Europe, which was later adopted by the Chinese through contact with Japanese pirates in the 16th century
11.
Egyptian pyramids
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The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt. As of November 2008, sources cite either 118 or 138 as the number of identified Egyptian pyramids, most were built as tombs for the countrys pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara, northwest of Memphis, the earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser which was built during the third dynasty. This pyramid and its surrounding complex were designed by the architect Imhotep, the most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built, the Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. By the time of the Early Dynastic Period, those with sufficient means were buried in bench-like structures known as mastabas, the second historically-documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed to the architect Imhotep, who planned what Egyptologists believe to be a tomb for the pharaoh Djoser. Imhotep is credited with being the first to conceive the notion of stacking mastabas on top of each other, the result was the Pyramid of Djoser, which was designed to serve as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens. Such was the importance of Imhoteps achievement that he was deified by later Egyptians, the most prolific pyramid-building phase coincided with the greatest degree of absolutist rule. It was during this time that the most famous pyramids, the Giza pyramid complex, were built. Long after the end of Egypts own pyramid-building period, a burst of pyramid-building occurred in what is present-day Sudan, al-Aziz Uthman tried to destroy the Giza pyramid complex. He gave up after damaging the Pyramid of Menkaure because the task proved too huge, the shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created. Pyramids were often named in ways that referred to solar luminescence. For example, the name of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur The Southern Shining Pyramid. While it is agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. One suggestion is that they were designed as a type of resurrection machine, the Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the shafts that extend from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the center of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have designed to serve as a means to magically launch the deceased pharaohs soul directly into the abode of the gods
12.
Qanat
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A Qanāt or karez/kariz is a gently sloping underground channel to transport water from an aquifer or water well to surface for irrigation and drinking. The qanat technology is known to have developed in Iran by the Persian people sometime in the early 1st millennium BC. Qanat is the Arabic word for channel, Qanats in Persian called kārīz, kahan, Kahn, kahriz/kəhriz, khettara, Canal, falaj or foggara/fughara. Alternative terms for qanats in Asia and North Africa are kakuriz, chin-avulz, common variants of qanat in English include kanat, khanat, kunut, kona, konait, ghanat, ghundat. Qanats are constructed as a series of vertical shafts, connected by gently sloping tunnels. Qanats efficiently deliver large amounts of water to the surface without need for pumping. The water drains by gravity, typically from an upland aquifer, Qanats allow water to be transported over long distances in hot dry climates without much water loss to evaporation. The qanat should not be confused with the spring-flow tunnel typical to the area around Jerusalem. Although both are excavated tunnels designed to extract water by gravity flow, there are crucial differences, firstly, the origin of the qanat was a well that was turned into an artificial spring. In contrast, the origin of the tunnel was the development of a natural spring to renew or increase flow following a recession of the water table. Secondly, the shafts essential for the construction of qanats are not essential to spring-flow tunnels and it is very common for a qanat to start below the foothills of mountains, where the water table is closest to the surface. From this source, the tunnel slopes gently downward, slowly converging with the steeper slope of the land surface above. To connect a populated or agricultural area with an aquifer, qanats must often extend for long distances, Qanats are sometimes split into an underground distribution network of smaller canals called kariz. Like qanats, these canals are below ground to avoid contamination and evaporation. In some cases water from a qanat is stored in a reservoir, an ab anbar is an example of a traditional Persian qanat-fed reservoir for drinking water. The qanat system has the advantage of being resistant to disasters such as earthquakes and floods. Furthermore, it is almost insensitive to the levels of precipitation, from a sustainability perspective, qanats are powered only by gravity, and thus have low operation & maintenance costs once built. Qanats transfer freshwater from the plateau to the lower-lying plains with saltier soil
13.
Parthenon
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The Parthenon is a former temple, on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power and it was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the Doric order and its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and western civilization. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a programme of restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially ruined structure. The Parthenon itself replaced a temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon. The temple is aligned to the Hyades. While a sacred building dedicated to the patron goddess, the Parthenon was actually used primarily as a treasury. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, in the final decade of the sixth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s, on 26 September 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. From 1800 to 1803, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the sculptures with the alleged permission of the Ottoman Empire. These sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles or the Parthenon Marbles, were sold in 1816 to the British Museum in London, since 1983, the Greek government has been committed to the return of the sculptures to Greece. The Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon states that this room was the western cella of the Parthenon, jamauri D. Christopher Pelling asserts that Athena Parthenos may have constituted a discrete cult of Athena, intimately connected with, but not identical to, that of Athena Polias. According to this theory, the name of the Parthenon means the temple of the virgin goddess and it has also been suggested that the name of the temple alludes to the maidens, whose supreme sacrifice guaranteed the safety of the city. Parthénos has also applied to the Virgin Mary, Parthénos Maria. The first instance in which Parthenon definitely refers to the building is found in the writings of the 4th century BC orator Demosthenes. In 5th-century building accounts, the structure is simply called ho naos, because the Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, it has sometimes been referred to as the Temple of Minerva, the Roman name for Athena, particularly during the 19th century
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Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
15.
Appian Way
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The Appian Way was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy and its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius, Appia longarum. The Appian Way was used as a route for military supplies since its construction for that purpose in 312 B. C. The Appian Way was the first long road built specifically to transport troops outside the region of greater Rome. The few roads outside the city were Etruscan and went mainly to Etruria. By the late Republic, the Romans had expanded over most of Italy and were masters of road construction, Rome had an affinity for the people of Campania, who, like themselves, traced their backgrounds to the Etruscans. The Samnite Wars were instigated by the Samnites when Rome attempted to ally itself with the city of Capua in Campania, the Italic speakers in Latium had long ago been subdued and incorporated into the Roman state. They were responsible for changing Rome from a primarily Etruscan to a primarily Italic state, dense populations of sovereign Samnites remained in the mountains north of Capua, which is just north of the Greek city of Neapolis. Around 343 BC, Rome and Capua attempted to form an alliance, the Samnites reacted with military force. Between Capua and Rome lay the Pontine Marshes, a swamp infested with malaria, a tortuous coastal road wound between Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber and Neapolis. The via Latina followed its ancient and scarcely more accessible path along the foothills of Monti Laziali and Monti Lepini, in the First Samnite War the Romans found they could not support or resupply troops in the field against the Samnites across the marsh. A revolt of the Latin League drained their resources further and they gave up the attempted alliance and settled with Samnium. The Romans were only biding their time while they looked for a solution, the first answer was the colonia, a cultivation of settlers from Rome, who would maintain a permanent base of operations. The Second Samnite War erupted when Rome attempted to place a colony at Cales in 334, the Samnites, now a major power after defeating the Greeks of Tarentum, occupied Neapolis to try to ensure its loyalty. The Neapolitans appealed to Rome, which sent an army and expelled the Samnites from Neapolis, in 312 BC, Appius Claudius Caecus became censor at Rome. He was of the gens Claudia, who were descended from the Sabines taken into the early Roman state. He had been given the name of the ancestor of the gens. He was a populist, i. e. an advocate of the common people, a man of inner perspicacity, in the years of success he was said to have lost his outer vision and thus acquired the name caecus, blind
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Roman engineering
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Romans are famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments, although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas, concepts and inventions. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, the architecture used in Rome was strongly influenced by Greek and Etruscan sources. Roads were common at time, but the Romans improved their design. Moreover, their contributions were described in detail by authors such as Vitruvius, Frontinus and Pliny the Elder, so there is a printed record of their many inventions. 1,000 cubic metres of water were brought into Rome by 14 different aqueducts each day, per capita water usage in ancient Rome matched that of modern-day cities like New York City or modern Rome. Most water was for use, such as baths and sewers. De aquaeductu is the two volume treatise on 1st century aqueducts of Rome, written by Frontinus. The aqueducts could stretch from 10–100 km long, and typically descended from an elevation of 300 m above sea level at the source, Roman engineers used inverted siphons to move water across a valley if they judged it impractical to build a raised aqueduct. The Roman legions were largely responsible for building the aqueducts, maintenance was often done by slaves. The Romans were among the first civilizations to harness the power of water and they built some of the first watermills outside of Greece for grinding flour and spread the technology for constructing watermills throughout the Mediterranean region. It is known that they were capable of building and operating mining equipment such as crushing mills. Large diameter vertical wheels of Roman vintage, for raising water, have been excavated from the Rio Tinto mines in Southwestern Spain, Roman bridges were among the first large and lasting bridges ever built. They were built with stone, employing the arch as basic structure, built in 142 BC, the Pons Aemilius, later named Ponte Rotto is the oldest Roman stone bridge in Rome, Italy. They were normally at least 18 meters above the body of water, an example of temporary military bridge construction are the two Caesars Rhine bridges. The Romans built many dams for water collection, such as the Subiaco dams, one of the Subiaco dams was reputedly the highest ever found or inferred. They built 72 dams in Spain, such as those at Mérida, at one site, Montefurado in Galicia, they appear to have built a dam across the river Sil to expose alluvial gold deposits in the bed of the river. The site is near the spectacular Roman gold mine of Las Medulas, tanks for holding water are also common along aqueduct systems, and numerous examples are known from just one site, the gold mines at Dolaucothi in west Wales. Masonry dams were common in North Africa for providing a water supply from the wadis behind many settlements
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Great Wall of China
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Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC, these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built 220–206 BC by Qin Shi Huang, since then, the Great Wall has been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced, the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty. The Great Wall stretches from Dandong in the east to Lop Lake in the west, a comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km. This is made up of 6,259 km sections of wall,359 km of trenches and 2,232 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills. Another archaeological survey found that the wall with all of its branches measure out to be 21,196 km. The collection of fortifications now known as The Great Wall of China has historically had a number of different names in both Chinese and English. The Chinese character 城 is a compound of the place or earth radical 土 and 成. The longer Chinese name Ten-Thousand-Mile Long Wall came from Sima Qians description of it in the Records, though he did not name the walls as such. The AD493 Book of Song quotes the frontier general Tan Daoji referring to the wall of 10,000 miles, closer to the modern name. Since Chinas metrication in 1930, it has been equivalent to 500 metres or 1,600 feet. However, this use of ten-thousand is figurative in a manner to the Greek and English myriad. Because of the association with the First Emperors supposed tyranny. Instead, various terms were used in records, including frontier, rampart, barrier, the outer fortresses. Poetic and informal names for the wall included the Purple Frontier, only during the Qing period did Long Wall become the catch-all term to refer to the many border walls regardless of their location or dynastic origin, equivalent to the English Great Wall. The current English name evolved from accounts of the Chinese wall from early modern European travelers, by the 19th century, The Great Wall of China had become standard in English, French, and German, although other European languages continued to refer to it as the Chinese wall. The Chinese were already familiar with the techniques of wall-building by the time of the Spring, during this time and the subsequent Warring States period, the states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan, and Zhongshan all constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. Built to withstand the attack of small arms such as swords and spears, king Zheng of Qin conquered the last of his opponents and unified China as the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Intending to impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, to position the empire against the Xiongnu people from the north, however, he ordered the building of new walls to connect the remaining fortifications along the empires northern frontier
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Qin Shi Huang
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Qin Shi Huang was the founder of the Qin dynasty and was the first emperor of a unified China. He was born Ying Zheng or Zhao Zheng, a prince of the state of Qin. He became the King Zheng of Qin when he was thirteen, then Chinas first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified all of China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of king borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers and his self-invented title emperor, as indicated by his use of the word First, would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia. Qin Shi Huang also worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and he is traditionally said to have banned and burned many books and executed scholars, though a closer examination renders the account doubtful. In ancient China however the naming convention differed, and Zhao may be used as the surname, the rulers of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin or King Zheng of Qin and this title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and of Zhou, the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC. Following the surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng had reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou, rather than maintain his rank as king, however, he created a new title of huángdì for himself. This new title combined two titles—huáng of the mythical Three Sovereigns and the dì of the legendary Five Emperors of Chinese prehistory. King Zheng chose the new name of First Emperor on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the Second Emperor, Third Emperor. The new title carried religious overtones, for that reason, Sinologists—starting with Peter Boodberg or Edward Schafer—sometimes translate it as thearch and the First Emperor as the First Thearch. The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, following his elevation as emperor, both Zhengs personal name 政 and possibly its homophone 正 became taboo. The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person Chinese pronoun 朕 for his exclusive use, others were to address him as Your Majesty in person and Your Highness in writing. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, written by Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, the first emperor was the eldest son of the Qin prince Yiren, who later became King Zhuangxiang of Qin. Prince Yiren at that time was residing at the court of Zhao, Prince Yiren had fallen in love at first sight with a concubine of Lü Buwei, a rich merchant from the State of Wey. Lü consented for her to be Yirens wife, who became known as Lady Zhao after the state of Zhao. Lü Buweis machinations later helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin in 250 BC, however, the Records of the Grand Historian also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. According to translations of the Annals of Lü Buwei, Zhao Ji gave birth to the emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC
19.
Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lankas documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lankas recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, in addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the capital and largest city. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in South Asia that are rated among high human development on the Human Development Index. In antiquity, Sri Lanka was known to travellers by a variety of names, according to the Mahavamsa, the legendary Prince Vijaya named the land Tambapanni, because his followers hands were reddened by the red soil of the area. In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā, in Tamil, the island is referred to as Eelam. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā or Taprobanē from the word Tambapanni, as a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, it achieved independence as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948. The country is known in Sinhalese as Śrī Laṃkā and in Tamil as Ilaṅkai, in 1972, its formal name was changed to Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka. Later in 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as the name Ceylon still appears in the names of a number of organisations, the Sri Lankan government announced in 2011 a plan to rename all those over which it has authority. The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years, the era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala and it is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravanas airport, early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvamsa, a written in Pāḷi, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and Nagas. Ancient cemeteries that were used before 600BC and other signs of advanced civilization has also discovered in Sri Lanka
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Jetavanaramaya
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The Jetavanaramaya is a stupa located in the ruins of Jetavana in the sacred world heritage city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Mahasena of Anuradhapura initiated the construction of the following the destruction of the mahavihara. His son Maghavanna I completed the construction of the stupa, a part of a sash or belt tied by the Buddha is believed to be the relic that is enshrined here. The structure is no longer the tallest, but it is still the largest, approximately 93.3 million baked bricks were used in its construction, the engineering ingenuity behind the construction of the structure is a significant development in the history of the island. This stupa belongs to the Sagalika sect, the compound covers approximately 5.6 hectares and is estimated to have housed 10,000 Buddhist monks. One side of the stupa is 576 ft long, and the flights of stairs at each of the four sides of it are 28 ft wide, the doorpost to the shrine, which is situated in the courtyard, is 27 ft high. The stupa has a 8.5 m deep foundation, stone inscriptions in the courtyard give the names of people who donated to the building effort. The differences between the Theravadins and Mahayanins escalated to an extent to which a penalty was established to any person providing alms to monks dwelling in the mahavihara. The Mahavamsa quotes Sanghamitta, The dwellers in the Mahavihara do not teach the vinaya, we are those who teach the vinaya, O king. The monks dwelling at the premises moved to Malaya Rata and Ruhuna, the pillaging prompted a rebellion by minister Meghavannabhaya, the minister raised an army from Malaya and set camp by the Duratissaka tank. The dakkinagiri monks were then entrusted with the premises of Jetavana Vihara, as the largest ancient stupa constructed and one of the tallest ancient structures in the world, the structural ingenuity and engineering skills employed for the construction are significant. The foundations of the structure were 8. 5m deep and the size of the structure required bricks which could withstand loads of up to 166 kg. The Mahavamsa describes the foundation laying, where fissures were filled with stones, finely crushed dolomite lime stone, sieved sand and clay provided the bonding material for the bricks. The clay employed was pliable and thus accommodates movement within the structure, one of the sides of the brick was roughened to trap the bonding slurry thus limiting lateral movement. The stupa was covered with lime plaster, the plaster used contained seashells, sugar syrup, egg whites, coconut water, glues, oils, plant resin, sand, clay. The plaster also provided waterproofing for the structure, the Mahavamsa also mentions the use of copper sheets over the foundation and arsenic dissolved in sesame oil to prevent insect and plant intrusions inside the stupa. It is estimated that Jetavanaramaya took 15 years to complete and would have required a workforce of hundreds, including brickyard workers and bricklayers. The Jetavanaramaya was under the monks of the Sagalika sect, the Sagalica sect was closely linked with the Abhyagiri viharaya
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Anuradhapura
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Anuradhapura is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the city of North Central Province, Sri Lanka. Anuradhapura is one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka, famous for its ruins of an ancient Sri Lankan civilization. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Rajarata, following the kingdoms of Tambapanni. The city, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the center of Theravada Buddhism for many centuries, the city lies 205 km north of the current capital Colombo in Sri Lankas North Central Province, on the banks of the historic Malvathu Oya. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and it is believed that from the fourth century BC until the beginning of the 11th century AD it was the capital of the Sinhalese. During this period it remained one of the most stable and durable centers of political power, the ancient city, considered sacred to the Buddhist world, is today surrounded by monasteries covering an area of over sixteen square miles. Protohistoric Iron Age Although according to records the city was founded in the 5th century BC. Very little evidence was available about the period before the 5th century BC, further excavations in Anuradhapura have uncovered information about the existence of a protohistoric habitation of humans in the citadel. The protohistoric Iron Age, which spans from 900 to 600 BC, marked the appearance of iron technology, pottery, in the time period 700 to 600 BC, the settlement in Anuradhapura had grown over an area of at least 50 hectares. The city was situated of major ports northwest and northeast. It was surrounded by irrigable and fertile land, the city was also buried deep in the jungle providing natural defence from invaders. Lower Early Historic period The Lower Early Historic period, spanning from 500 to 250 BC, is studied on the lines of the chronicles, during this time King Pandukabhaya formally planned the city, with gates, quarters for traders etc. The city at the time would have covered an area of 1 square kilometre makes it one of the largest in the continent at the time. A hermitage was made for many ascetics, eastward of that same cemetery and it is believed that King Pandukabhaya made it his capital in the 4th century BC, and that he also laid out the town and its suburbs according to a well-organized plan. He constructed a reservoir named Abhayavapi and he established shrines for yakkhas such as Kalawela and Cittaraja. He housed the Yaksini-Cetiya in the form of a mare within the royal precincts, the slaves or Candalas were assigned their duties, and a village was set apart for them. They build dwellings for Niganthas, for wandering ascetics and for Ajivakas and Brahmanas, the tradition that King Pandukabhaya made Anuradhapura the capital city of Sri Lanka as early as the 4th century BC had been very important
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Roman aqueduct
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The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts in order to bring water from often distant sources into cities and towns, supplying public baths, latrines, fountains and private households. Aqueducts also provided water for mining operations, milling, farms, Aqueducts moved water through gravity alone, along a slight downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick or concrete. Most conduits were buried beneath the ground, and followed the contours of the terrain, obstructing peaks were circumvented or, less often, tunneled through. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was carried on bridgework, or its contents fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic or stone pipes, most aqueduct systems included sedimentation tanks, which helped reduce any water-borne debris. Sluices and castella aquae regulated the supply to individual destinations, the run-off water from aqueducts drove urban water-mills, and scoured the drains and sewers. Romes first aqueduct supplied a water fountain sited at the cattle market. By the 3rd century AD, the city had aqueducts, sustaining a population of over a million in a water-extravagant economy. Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable, and durable, some were maintained into the modern era. Methods of aqueduct surveying and construction are noted by Vitruvius in his work De Architectura, the general Frontinus gives more detail in his official report on the problems, uses and abuses of Imperial Romes public water supply. Notable examples of architecture include the supporting piers of the Aqueduct of Segovia. The reliance of ancient communities upon such water resources restricted their potential growth, by the early Imperial era, the citys aqueducts supported a population of over a million, and an extravagant water supply for public amenities had become a fundamental part of Roman life. The run-off of aqueduct water scoured the sewers of cities and towns, Water from aqueducts was also used to supply villas, ornamental urban and suburban gardens, market gardens, farms and agricultural estates, the latter being the core of Romes economy and wealth. Rome had several springs within its perimeter walls but its groundwater was notoriously unpalatable, water from the river Tiber was badly affected by pollution and waterborne diseases. The citys demand for water had probably exceeded its local supplies by 312 BC, when the citys first aqueduct. The Aqua Appia was one of two major projects of the time, the other was a military road between Rome and Capua, the first leg of the so-called Appian Way. Both projects had significant strategic value, as the Third Samnite War had been under way for thirty years by that point. The road allowed rapid troop movements, and by design or fortunate coincidence, most of the Aqua Appia ran within a buried conduit and it was fed by a spring 16. A second aqueduct, the Aqua Anio Vetus, was commissioned some forty years later and its flow was more than twice that of the Aqua Appia, and it entered the city on raised arches, supplying water to higher elevations of the city
