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In time, cisterns became grand examples of carefully engineered architecture. The spectacular cathedral-sized Basilica Cistern is the largest and most impressive of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul (once called Constantinople). The subterranean structure was commissioned by Emperor Justinian and built in 532 CE.
The ruins of Shivta, an ancient Nabataean city in the Negev Desert, include a series of wells and cisterns that collected rainwater runoff for use as drinking water and irrigation purposes. The city dates back to the Byzantine period.
El Jadida, a port city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, is the location of the beautiful vaulted Portuguese Cistern, built in 1514 underneath what was then the Portuguese city of Mazagan.
The aljibe, or cistern, found beneath Cáceres Museum was built by Berber Muslims between the 9th and 11th centuries. Named for the Spanish town it's located in, the Cáceres Cistern is one of the largest and best-preserved water tanks in the Iberian Peninsula.
The enormous Palombaro Lungo cistern is one of the great sights of Matera, a city in the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy. Lying under the city's main square with arches carved out of the existing rock, the cistern was built in 1832. It collected and filtered rainwater and was still supplying water to Materans up until 1920.
The south-central Turkish town of Silifke was once provided with water supplied from the monumental Tekfur ambarı, a cistern built during the early years of the Byzantine Empire.
All well and good perhaps, but it was the subterranean cistern that proved the most practical and reliable method of harnessing water. Built by Roman Emperor Theodosius II between 428 and 443 CE to store water supplied by the Valens Aqueduct, the majestic Theodosius Cistern is an Istanbul subterranean showstopper.
The Romans built Piscina Mirabilis, which in Latin means "wondrous pool," on the western edge of the Gulf of Naples. Built during the reign of Augustus, it was most likely commissioned by a wealthy villa owner.
Meybod is a major desert city in Yazd Province and is famed for having a rich collection of ancient water-related structures, home as it is to over 150 historical cisterns and some 30 watermills.
Nestling in the Agra District of Uttar Pradesh is the town of Fatehpur Sikri, founded as the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571 by Emperor Akbar. The destination is noted for Panch Mahal, a palace that features a pool called Anoop Talab, a water storage cistern that also served as the setting for musical concerts and other entertainment.
Among the ruins of the Casas Grandes archaeological site in Chihuahua state, which is also known as Paquimé, are early examples of crude cisterns, built as the site was settled around 1130 CE. Construction of Casas Grandes is attributed to the Mogollon culture.
Many Yemeni mountain villages such as this one at Shaharah still rely on ancient cisterns for their water supply. Mentioned as far back as the 10th century, Shaharah is also noted for its fragile limestone arch footbridge, constructed in the 17th century by a local lord to connect two villages across a deep gorge.
Below the Israeli city of Ramla is an underground world of ornate water cisterns that date back to 789 CE. These elaborately designed water tanks can be explored by rowing boat and provide visitors with a unique perspective of this subterranean treasure.
The May Shum cistern is said to have been commissioned by the Queen of Sheba around the middle of the first millennium BC. The cistern is, in fact, a reservoir and one of the main archaeological sites at Axum, a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia and the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire.
Gaziantep in Turkey is especially known for Zeugma Mosaic Museum, the largest of its kind in the world. The city, however, is also noted for its collection of historic sites, including the evocative 13th-century Pisirici Kasteli cistern. Kastels are water fountains built below ground, and they are structures peculiar to Gaziantep. The cisterns served as places for bathing, prayer, washing, and relaxation.
Bet Guvrin National Park in central Israel encompasses the ancient ruins of Maresha, part of the Meresha and Bet Guvrin Caves—man-made subterranean complexes up to 2,000 years old. The Columbarium at Tel Maresha features a cistern that would have supplied fresh water to the inhabitants of the twin towns of Maresha and Bet Guvrin in Lower Judea.
Founded by the Umayyads around 670 CE, Kairouan is remarkable for the Aghlabid Basins, considered to be the most important hydraulic systems in the history of the Muslim world. The ancient facility consists of a small settling basin, a large basin for storing water, and two drawing tanks.
Seville's Baños de Doña María de Padilla ("Baths of Dona Maria Padilla") is a cistern and bathing complex set below the medieval Real Alcázar (palace). It's named after María de Padilla, mistress of King Pedro, who'd frequently bathe in its cool clear waters.
In the Middle Ages, cisterns were often constructed in hill castles in Europe, especially where wells could not be dug deeply enough. Wartburg Castle looms over the town of Eisenach and is the place where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German. Occupants of the castle were nourished in part by fresh water captured in an enormous circular cistern, which today is a visitor attraction in itself.
A familiar landmark on the Lüneburg old town skyline, the 55 m- (180 ft-) tall water tower, which dates back to 1907, features a 500 cu m (18,000 cu ft) large water tank at its base.
Built in 1923, the House in the Clouds stands as one of the quirkiest water towers ever designed. Located in the Suffolk village of Thorpeness, the tower was disguised to resemble the village's mock-Tudor and Jacobean style of architecture.
A cherished city landmark, the Chicago Water Tower was built in 1869 to enclose the tall machinery of a powerful water pump rather than as a water storage facility. The structure survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and today serves as a tourism office.
Inaugurated in 2015, the iconic Khobar Water Tower, situated on a man-made peninsula off the Arabian Gulf city of Khobar, is a major tourist attraction. A revolving restaurant tops the structure.
Described as an architectural treasure and a prime example of Victorian architecture, the Invercargill Water Tower was built in 1889 and stands on New Zealand's South Island. The picturesque red-brick tower's original role was to support the city's first high-pressure water supply tank.
One of the most recognized water towers in Europe, this Mannheim landmark dates back to 1889. It supplied the city's drinking water before serving as an above-ground water tank until 2000.
As the railroad progressed across the United States throughout the 1800s, so too did the building of water towers along various stages of the lines to quench the thirsts of steam locomotives. Today many of these towers, such as the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Water Tank in South Fork, Colorado, are protected national monuments.
As civil engineering technology developed in the 19th century, the building of dams to harness huge volumes of water increased. Pictured is Lake Vyrnwy Reservoir in Powys, Wales, built in the 1880s to supply the city of Liverpool with fresh water. The dam was the first large stone-built dam in the United Kingdom.
There is evidence of the use of reservoirs in India dating back to 3000 BCE. In fact, a dry climate and water scarcity in the subcontinent saw the creation of stepwells—wells or ponds in which the water is reached by descending a set of steps to the water level. Pictured is the Chand Baori stepwell in the village of Abhaneri, Rajasthan, one of the deepest and largest stepwells in India, the oldest parts of which date from the 8th century.
At over 223 km (139 mi) long and up to 40 km (25 mil) in width, Lake Kariba, which straddles the borders of Zambia-Zimbabwe is the world's largest man-made lake and reservoir by volume.
Sources: (BBC) (World Heritage Site) (World Atlas)
See also: The most spectacular lakes on Earth
Some of the very earliest examples of collecting and storing water arrived with the creation of the water well. Wood-lined wells are known from the early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture dating back to 5265 BCE. Ancient Chinese, Egyptian, and Roman civilizations used wells for drinking and bathing purposes. Some of the oldest wells are scattered in deserts around the globe.
Located on Iran's Persian coast, the ancient site of Kariz-e-Kish features a subterranean network of stone passageways built around a historic qanat. Dated back to around 2,500 years, it was built to collect, purify, and store water for the inhabitants of Harireh, a historic citadel located in what is now Kish.
The poetically named Reservatório da Mãe d'Água das Amoreiras in Lisbon translates as "Mother of Water Reservoir" and is situated in the city's Amoreiras neighborhood. An ornate 18th-century reservoir complex, this so-called water temple was the key holding tank for the city during the 19th century, and was fed by an impressive aqueduct.
Water is our most precious commodity. Without it, nothing would exist. Collecting and storing fresh water has therefore been a major preoccupation for us all since the dawn of humanity. To do so, we've built wells, cisterns, towers, and reservoirs in order to hold, preserve, and distribute this life-sustaining liquid. Many of these structures number some of the most extraordinary examples of civil engineering ever conceived, and which are today preserved for posterity.
Click through for a fascinating look at the ways we store water.
All cisterns go! The ways we store water
From wells to reservoirs
LIFESTYLE Engineering
Water is our most precious commodity. Without it, nothing would exist. Collecting and storing fresh water has therefore been a major preoccupation for us all since the dawn of humanity. To do so, we've built wells, cisterns, towers, and reservoirs in order to hold, preserve, and distribute this life-sustaining liquid. Many of these structures number some of the most extraordinary examples of civil engineering ever conceived, and which are today preserved for posterity.
Click through for a fascinating look at the ways we store water.