Mind-Benders of Mesopotamian History
A stone aqueduct centuries before Rome
Around 690 BCE, King Sennacherib of Assyria built a canal system over 50 km long to water his capital Nineveh, including a stone aqueduct at Jerwan made of some two million dressed limestone blocks that carried water across a valley on arches of stone. It predates Rome's first aqueduct, the Aqua Appia of 312 BCE, by nearly four centuries.
How we know
Sennacherib's Jerwan aqueduct / Nineveh canal system c. 703–690 BCE (~2 million dressed limestone blocks, stone arches, ~50 km) vs. Rome's Aqua Appia, 312 BCE; gap 690−312 = 378 yrs (~4 centuries); age today 690+2026 = 2,716 yrs.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.