There’s something truly majestic and powerful- hypnotic even- about a really beautiful water fountain. I’m not talking about the ones you might stumble across around the back of the reading sheds in primary school, the little one nozzled affairs that dribble out a pitiful drip of water. No. It’s the huge, grand designs that Rome is famous for, that I’m talking about, the ones adorned with statues of naked gods or fishes with water spurting out of their gills and mouths, left , right and centre. The water fountain has a very long and interesting history that you may be interested o know about. They date back some thousands of years when the Ancient Greeks built fountains above springs which were thought to have magical powers. They were a superstitious bunch those Greeks! Anyway the Romans were the ones who copied the Greek construction of water fountains and developed these into a sophisticated means by which the citizens of Rome could come by their daily water. Aqueducts were built which used closed pipes to transport water down into valleys and up the other side. The channels were typically 3 feet wide and six feet high so that inspections and maintenance could be carried out easily.