SAHARA Highlights: Water

Water storage and water infrastructure are essential to making many parts of the earth habitable. From Petra to Bermuda to Los Angeles, people have devised complex systems to provide fresh water for agriculture and human consumption. Sometimes this work is undertaken privately but often it must be done at a large scale, requiring massive public expenditures. On occasion, this work is celebrated with elaborate architectural adornments, such as the Fairmount Water Works. This month’s selections illustrate the public and private provision for water from the ancient world to the present.

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Rock-cut water channel, Petra, Maʻān, Jordan, c. 1^st century B.C.E. to 3^rd century C.E. Photograph by Dell Upton, December, 2016.

Aqueduct, Segovia, Spain, late 1^st century, C.E., early 2^nd century, C.E. Photograph by Allan T. Kohl, May, 1996.

Brangman House, Saint David’s Island, Saint George’s, Bermuda, early 19^th century. View of roof, gutter and water tank for rainwater storage. Photograph by Dell Upton, April, 1980.

Well Pump, High Street, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England, 1832. Photograph by Jeffrey E. Klee, 2013.

Charles A. Gombert, North Point Water Tower, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1874. Photograph by Andrew C. Hope, May, 2011.

Koligan water tank, Fresno, California, United States, 1912. Photograph by Jeffrey E. Klee, May, 2008.

Hoover Dam, Black Canyon, Arizona, United States, 1931-1936. Photograph by Thalia Allington-Wood, April, 2016.

Louis I. Kahn, water tower, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad, Gujarat, India, 1962-1974. Photograph by Peter Serenyi.

Chicago Bridge and Iron Company, water tower, Canton, Alabama, United States, 1992. Photograph by Dell Upton, August, 2006.