Römischer Abwasserkanal

The Roman sewer in Cologne sits beneath the modern streets of the Altstadt, a stone vault built two thousand years ago to manage the waste of the ancient city. It follows the path of the original Roman street grid, constructed of heavy blocks and lime mortar to drain runoff directly into the Rhine. When workers uncovered a section during construction in the nineteen fifties, they found debris still trapped in the mortar joints from when the system stopped running after the Roman withdrawal.