Trajan’s Market was a landmark brick and concrete structure built in the heart of Rome in the early 2nd century AD. Often regarded as the world’s first shopping mall, it consisted of a...

This device was a human-powered water pump, probably invented in the 3rd century BC by the great Greek mathematician and inventor, Archimedes. This pump is also the world’s first known use of the...

This robust machine was used for heavy lifting on most of the major construction projects of the Roman Imperial Era. An improved version of an earlier Greek construction crane, the Roman machine was...

The Roman Pantheon is one of the most extraordinary buildings that have survived from the ancient world. Its 142-foot diameter dome was built of solid concrete and remained the world’s...

This model shows the Roman Pantheon with the upper portion of its cylindrical wall removed, to illustrate the configuration of its internal structure. That fascinating structure is characterized by...

The Temple of Concordia at Agrigento, Sicily, is one of the world’s best preserved Greek Doric temples. It is constructed entirely of stone, cut and fitted with great precision, assembled without...

The hypocaust was a Roman under-floor heating system, used in baths and private residences. The furnace at left discharged hot air into the open space below the raised floor. The hot air was then...

The Hatra Ballista was a Roman siege catapult powered by torsion springs consisting of rope bundles made from animal sinew.  This machine was particularly innovative, in that the two wooden throwing...

This model depicts the incredible Roman watermill complex at Barbegal, France. At this facility, 16 overshot waterwheels were arranged like a flight of stairs on a hillside. The wheels drove 16...

This is a cutaway view of one waterwheel and its associated millstone and gearing at the Roman Barbegal mill complex in southern France. This model shows an overshot waterwheel (one of sixteen in...

This building is the only structure known to have been designed by the great Roman engineer and author, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio.  No remains of the basilica have survived to the present day;...

Archeological remains of this Roman water-lifting device were discovered at Gresham Street in downtown London in 2001. The machine lifts water with a chain of wooden buckets, connected together with...

The castellum divisorium was a Roman water control structure, used to divide the single inflow from an aqueduct into multiple water supply lines feeding a city’s water distribution network. This...

The castellum divisorium was a Roman water control structure, used to divide the single inflow from an aqueduct into multiple water supply lines feeding a city’s water distribution network. This...