The surroundings of Berg en Dal are dominated by the remains of a push moraine from the Quaternary ice age. When the Romans wanted to build an aqueduct to provide the legionary camp at the Hunerberg in the east of Nijmegen with water, it made sense to look for sources at the push moraine. The difference in height ensured that the water automatically ran towards the camp.
Five kilometres of pipes
The Romans probably constructed the aqueduct in stages, drilling into new aquifers each time. The final length of the distribution pipes was roughly five kilometres with a consistent gradient of 0.2%. The channel used to transport the water was probably made of wood as no traces have ever been found.
Three million wheelbarrows
A total of almost 300,000 m3 of soil was moved for the construction of the aqueduct. If we convert this into modern units of measurement, we are talking about three million wheelbarrows. The Berg en Dal aqueduct is therefore a fine example of the Roman art of engineering and comparable to famous examples elsewhere such as the 110 kilometres of distribution pipes in Cologne, de Pont du Gard near Nîmes and the eleven aqueducts of Rome.
Impressive achievement
Three channels (Kerstendal, Louisedal and Mariënbosch) and three dams (Cortendijk, Swartendijk and Broerdijk) bare silent witnesses to this impressive logistic achievement and in January 2009, the Dutch minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ronald Plasterk, declared them archaeological monuments. Together with the viaduct, they make up the largest Roman monument in the Netherlands.
