The Gozo Aqueduct is an aqueduct on the island of

Gozo Gozo ( ), known in classical antiquity, antiquity as Gaulos, is an island in the Malta#The Maltese archipelago, Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After the Malta Island, island of Malta ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. It was built by the British between 1839 and 1843 to transport water from Għar Ilma in the limits of

Kerċem Ta' Kerċem is a village in Malta, in the island of Gozo Gozo ( ), known in classical antiquity, antiquity as Gaulos, is an island in the Malta#The Maltese archipelago, Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. A reservoir was built within the

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...

of the

Cittadella Cittadella () is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around . There are fo ...

to store water which most probably stored water coming from the Cittadella itself. An

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

was built near the reservoirs to commemorate the opening of the aqueduct. Gozo Aquaduct Obelisk June 2016

The aqueduct fell into a state of disrepair after it was replaced by a system of pipes and electrical pumps. Large sections of it were lost in a series of collapses, the latest of which occurred during a storm in the 1980s. Despite this, significant portions of the aqueduct's arches still stand, and they are regarded to have value as a ruin. In 2019, it was reported that the Ministry for Gozo had plans to

reconstruct Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

the entire aqueduct, a project which would have involved the dismantling of the surviving arches. The project's planning application was suspended after opposition by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage and the

Environment and Resources Authority The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA, ) is the regulatory agency responsible for the natural environment in Malta. It was formed from the demerger of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 2016, which also resulted in the creation ...

References

Aqueducts in Malta Ruins in Malta Bridges completed in 1844 Kerċem Victoria, Gozo {{Malta-geo-stub

See also

References