On the road heading from Mytilene towards the village of Moria, in a lush location above the gulf of Gera there is an aqueduct dated back to the roman era, the only one on the island of Lesvos.
It is a monument of a great architectural excellence with many classicist elements that make it stylistically “hadrianic”. It was built at the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century AD for the purpose of supplying water to the ancient city of Mytilene. The natural source of the aqueduct was located beside a lake, now known as the Great Lake which later dried up, in the northern slopes of Mount Olympos.
It covered a total distance of 28 km through a rather impassable geomorphology. The genius architect faced the problem by bridging the valleys with arches, over which the water pipes were passing. Parts of water bridges and pipelines are still visible at various spots along its route. The archaeologist Ioannis D. Kontis describes it in the following words: "the entire structure looked like a single facade of a building with three superimposed arcades". Its special architectural design makes it one of the most beautiful aqueducts of the ancient world.
The Moria aqueduct with its archs and marble parts echoes the prosperity and splendor of Mytilene (equal to Rhodes and Ephesus according to Horace) a fact that is reflected on the monumental architecture of the Roman era on the island.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
