Antioch in Pisidia Nymphaeum

At the archaeological site of Antioch in Pisidia, outside Yalvac in Isparta province, the remains of a large U-shaped nymphaeum mark the point where the ancient city's water supply reached public display. Built in the first half of the 1st century AD, the structure was fed by an aqueduct that carried water roughly 11 kilometers from the Sultan Mountains along a gentle average gradient, delivering an estimated 3,000 cubic meters of water each day. The nymphaeum combined practical and ornamental functions: a reservoir about 27 by 3 meters stored incoming water, an ornamental facade roughly 9 meters high faced the street, and a basin around 27 by 7 meters held water for public use. As one of the more sophisticated hydraulic installations surviving from Roman Asia Minor, the nymphaeum illustrates the engineering effort Antioch's builders invested in bringing mountain water into a provincial Roman city.