Nimes, France

In doing research for the Fun Facts below, I was shocked to read that cars were allowed on the bridge as late as the 1990's, and that tourist shops lined the river banks.  I was there in the fall of 2010, and I remember it being quiet and serene - I can't imagine what I must have been like just 15 years earlier!

We walked along the rocky shoreline for a bit, and then hiked up to the west end of the aqueduct, level with the water conduit at the top.  Most of the tourists were down on the bridge along side the aqueduct, so we had the area pretty much to ourselves.

Fun Facts:

• Believed to have been built between 40 and 60 AD
• 161 ft tall at the center, and 899 ft long
• No mortar was used to build the arches - the pieces of limestone, some weighing 6 tons, were carefully cut and balanced in place
• The Roman aqueduct was built to carry water to the city of Nimes
• It fell into disrepair and the conduit became blocked with deposits of dirt and organic matter, and most likely went out of use in the 6th century
• A bridge was built along the top of the lowest level, which allowed pedestrians and cars to cross the Gardon river 
• In 1996, the French government began a program to improve the area.  Cars were prohibited from crossing the bridge, and the illegally built structures and tourist shops were removed from the banks of the river, returning the area to a more natural state

More photos coming soon!