The Water Supply of Constantinople.. 



7 



lieve that their pipes would not burst in the circumstances 

 in which they had disposed them, but would burst if carried 

 continuously down and across the valley ? Or did they 

 think that they could raise the water higher than they 

 otherwise could at the delivery end of the aqueduct ? 



The name they themselves gave to these columns was 

 sou-terazou, or water balance, which may be a clue to their 

 theory. Andreossi observes respecting them : " It requires 

 but little attention to perceive that this system of conducting 

 tubes is nothing but a series of syphons open at their upper 

 part and communicating with each other. The expense 

 of a conduit by water balances is estimated at only one- 

 fifth of an aqueduct with arcades." George Buchanan, 

 civil engineer, thinks that Andreossi has misconceived the 

 nature of this device. 



These are all the artificial means of bringing water to 

 the city from without, except what is reported to be 

 brought from certain springs five or six miles to the west, 

 from Kavasskieui and Chalcali. But from the little that 

 has ever been said regarding them, I am confident that the 

 number of persons supplied from thence must be very few. 



At the present time the government is engaged upon a 

 new scheme for an additional supply, the deficiency being 

 felt in proportion as the population increases. The stream 

 which empties into the harbor, is to be dammed up, and 

 from the surface of the pond created, the water is to be 

 raised by steam power, one hundred feet, and conducted to 

 the city by pipes. 



We now leave the aqueducts and come to the distribu- 

 tion of the water in the cities and villages. It is distributed 

 into covered cisterns, to the public fountains, and to the 

 mosques and khans ; but not to private houses, with few 

 exceptions. 



Of cisterns and basins, in the time of the Greek Empire, 

 there were nineteen large ones established in the elevated 



