The Filippeios Krini (Philip’s Fountain) is a 2,300-year-old fountain that was commissioned by King Philip II of Macedonia. It has miraculous survived in working order to the present day, making it the oldest still-in-use hydraulic work in the world.
Philip’s Fountain: The Oldest Still-In-Use Hydraulic Work in the World
In 338 BC King Philip II of Macedonia established a military camp at Nestani in order to attack Amfissa, located across the Gulf of Corinth from Nestani. Although by this time the King’s influence was waning due to unsuccessful sieges on Perinthus in 340 BC and Byzantium in 339 BC, the King could not allow the residents of Amfissa to continue farming on the Crisaian plain – land that rightfully belonged to Delphi, the oracle of Apollo. The Macedonians camped in Nestani for many weeks. In order to provide his troops with enough water, the King ordered a fountain be built, Filippeios Krini (Philip’s Fountain). In what has come to be known as the Fourth Sacred War, King Phillip II soundly defeated Amfissa and expelled its citizens from the region. The King’s reputation was restored but he was assassinated two years later by one of his own bodyguards. It was an ignoble end to a King with a mixed legacy. However, his memory will continue to live on in the Filippeios Krini.
The technology of waterpower systems is known as hydraulics, which comes from the Greek words for “water pipes”. Beginning around 2000 BC, the Minoans and then the Mycenaeans developed incredibly advanced techniques for water supply, water transportation, drainage, storm water and sewage removal, flood protection, and irrigation. By the Hellenistic era, the Greeks had invented easy-to-use devices like the water wheel and the force pump – an instrument that enabled the user to raise water from the ground and was used by Rome’s fire brigades.
These pumps were brilliantly simple instruments that worked by “rotating an inclined cylinder bearing helical blades around its axis whose bottom is immersed in the water to be pumped. As the screw turns, water is trapped between the helical blades and the walls, and thus rises up to the length of the screw and drains out at the top” (Koutsoyiannis and Angelakis, 2003). The device is sometimes referred to as Archimedes’ screw pump. Force pumps are still used today for a wide range of functions including pumping well water, removing bilge water from boats, pumping out flooded basements, extinguishing fires, and for water jets.
The water wheel. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
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