A new approach regarding the water supply to Toledo during the Roman Era

For many years, the Roman water supply to Toledo was considered to be a single system transporting the necessary volumes to the city from the reservoir of La Alcantarilla on the River Guajaraz by means of a canal of over 50 kilometres in length. However, recent research undertaken over the last two years has enabled us to show that, in order to supply Toledo with water, the Romans resorted to a far more complex model involving the construction of three distinct systems. This paper is a partial summary of the results of the “Study and documentation of the water supply to Toledo in the Roman era”, undertaken since 2006 on behalf of the Tajo River Authority (Confederación Hidrográfica del Tajo) and which are fully laid out in a book entitled The supply of water to Toledo in the Roman era (V.A., in press). In addition to the signatories of this paper, the following have participated in the study as well as the subsequent publication: Fernando Gutiérrez, Carlos Cauce, Juan Carlos Gómez, Mariano Martín, Julián Conejo, Pedro Rodríguez and Yolanda Muñoz.