What Were These Ancient Arches in Türkiye Used For? Düzce’s Ingenious Use of Gravity

Sometimes, understanding an old structure means looking at what is missing. At the Kemerkasım Aqueducts, the surviving stone piers once supported a water-carrying channel. This structure allowed water to continue its journey towards a city.

Located in Kemerkasım village in Düzce, these remains reveal an essential part of ancient urban life. Behind the theatres and monumental buildings was a practical challenge: supplying people with water every day. Bringing it from a distant source required careful surveying, calculated gradients and, where necessary, structures built across valleys.

First, What Is an Aqueduct?

The word aqueduct can describe an entire system that carries water from one place to another. Its most recognisable feature is often an elevated structure of arches supporting a channel or water conduit.

From a distance, it resembles a bridge. Its principal purpose, however, is to carry water.

Imagine bringing water from a spring towards a town. A valley interrupts the route. An arched structure can support the channel above the valley, allowing it to maintain the gentle downward slope needed for the water to flow.

The water does not pass through the large openings beneath the arches. Those openings belong to the supporting structure. The water travels along the channel or conduit above them.

How Did Water Travel Without Pumps?

Many ancient water-supply systems relied on gravity. Engineers used the difference in elevation between the source and the destination, guiding water along a gradually descending route.

Building strong stone supports was only part of the task. The channel’s gradient also needed careful planning. Depending on the terrain, the watercourse could run along the ground, pass through a tunnel or cross a depression on elevated arches.

An impressive row of arches was therefore only one visible section of a much longer network. The entire journey from source to city did not need to take place above ground.

That is the ingenuity behind these structures: the landscape itself helped move the water, provided the route was designed correctly.

Where Are the Kemerkasım Aqueducts?

The remains stand in Kemerkasım village in Düzce’s central district. They are associated with the water-supply network of Prusias ad Hypium, the ancient settlement at present-day Konuralp.

This connection gives the ruins a wider meaning. They belonged to infrastructure serving the everyday needs of a community.

Konuralp’s ancient theatre makes it easy to imagine a busy town. The aqueduct remains raise another question: where did the water needed by all those people come from, and how did it reach them?

What Survives Today?

The Kemerkasım Aqueducts are associated with the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A precise construction year should not be assumed.

The structure is described as having been built in two tiers, using a mixture of cut stone and rubble stone bonded with Horasan mortar. What survives today consists principally of its supporting piers.

Do not expect an uninterrupted line of complete arches with an intact water channel overhead. Part of the interest lies in reading the surviving fragments and considering how they once fitted together.

Look at the positions of the piers. Follow the line they suggest and imagine the channel they supported. As you connect those missing sections in your mind, the purpose of the remains becomes easier to understand.

Visiting the Remains

Before travelling, confirm the ruins’ exact location and the current approach. Respect village roads and any private land around the site.

Avoid climbing the historic piers or using gaps between stones as footholds. Standing a little farther back often provides a clearer understanding of the structure’s layout.

By the time you leave Kemerkasım, those stone piers may look different to you. What first appeared to be isolated ruins becomes evidence of a carefully planned solution: using gravity to bring water to a city.