Ayia Napa Aquaduct
Seating Area
Go this way instead. There are a number of seats along the way too, and they are popular places for locals to have their lunch. By this I mean there were a few office workers eating sandwiches here.
The Aquaduct
Here is the Aquaduct itself. You have to admit, it is rather big. You would probably bang your head if you walked through that entrance without ducking (I say probably as I have no idea how tall you are). However, the structure is pretty impressive.
What's It All About?
What's more, there is a sign here that helpfully explains the purpose of the Aquaduct. This is what it says:
The Ayia Napa Aquaduct is one of the most important monuments preserved within the boundaries of the Ayia Napa municipality. The aquaduct had for hundreds of years supplied the monastery and the whole region with water. The monument in its present state of preservation is an alteration of the original Roman aquaduct, occurred during the Frankish period when the monastery was build. The source of the water is to be found somewhere on the Norteastern hills of Ayia Napa. Up to the year 1974 the original visible route of the channel was marked by a barrel-shaped structure at the location of "Mana tou Nerou", traditionally known as the House of the Greeks.
Aquaduct Centre
If you walk up to the aquaduct and look left you can see a bridge-opening. During the winter I imagine a river flows through there, or at least, used to.
From that point the aquaduct ran all the way to the monastery following the natural bedrock contours. The builders exploited the principles of gravity in order to deliver water to the Monastery. At two locations, along its route, monolithic troughs which were incorporated in the channel, acted as settling chambers in order to collect heavy impurities. At the same time these intercepting chambers facilitated the smooth running of water at the start of each curve.
This Way Up
This is the view to the right. You can see how daunting the wall is from here.
Where the aquaduct is intersected by a deep stream, a massive wall of dressed stones was built to support the channel, and an opening, shaped like a pointed arch was left for the stream water to flow through. The height of the wall varies from one meter to 12.28m over the central point of the arch. There on, the aquaduct is winding down towards the monastery, where at a deep point before the monastary buildings is supported on a wall. Then it runs parallel to the north outer wall of the cells and after passing under the Private House it enters the courtyard. The water is discharged through a head of a boar carved in marble, into a basin. From here it is conveyed under the courtyard and the southern buildingas of the monastery, and finally stored in a huge reservoir built under a sycamore tree. Another pipe within the courtyard was diverting some water to a sculptured fountain right in the centre of the yard.