Eupalinos Tunnel

The Eupalinos Tunnel is found on Samos near Pythagorion in the south eastern part of the island. Considered one of the largest construction and engineering feats in the Greek world, it dates back to the 6th century BC and served as an aqueduct taking fresh water from the Agiades spring to reach the Pytahgoreion city.

An ambitious project with an important scope for the times and the first to be studied with notions of mathematics and geometry of exceptional precision using principles codified by Euclid several centuries later.Conceived and built by the engineer Eupalino of Megara, son of Naustrophe, commissioned by the tyrant of Samos Polycrates, it also gave Samos the great sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Hera as well as the port with its large piers.

The astonishing tunnel is 1036 meters long crossing Mount Kastro and is estimated to have taken eight to ten years to complete. Fifty five meters above sea level, its internal corridor measures 1.80 m x 1.80 m with a moat of over half a meter. The depth of the chasm went up to 4 meters in the north and became almost 9 in the southern part, providing the perfect inclination for the water to flow using the gravitational flow. The lower margins are connected with underground tunnels following the Qanat method used by the Persians which consists in creating a horizontal underground channel with a slope to let the water flow which joins a collection aquifer making it flow at the optimal speed so as not to stagnate or evencausing them to increase their speed too much to avoid eroding the walls of the tunnel itself.

Carved from hard limestone, it was carved out on both sides at the same time by two teams of stonemasons in a straight line.The lighting inside was provided by oil lamps, thus making the task even more difficult. Once the entire route was completed, walls were erected inside to avoid structural collapse. The archaeologist Hermann Kienast during his studies demonstrated that Eupalinos left nothing to chance, with as many as seven measurement systems and controls, he was able to calculate the impeccable alignment during all construction works.

The aqueduct started from the Agiades spring where the water was previously collected in a rectangular stone tank and through an underground clay pipe almost a kilometer long, it was brought to the northern entrance of the tunnel and then the water arrived. from the south to the reservoirs and fountains in the city. It was used for a thousand years until the clay pipes became clogged and the water could no longer flow and reach Pythagorion.

The tunnel was also used as a refuge for the inhabitants of Samos during the looting by the Persians and Arabs, forcing the inhabitants to hide from the coastal areas as demonstrated by the findings of amphorae and oil lamps inside it. Its discovery dates back to 1882 by the monk Kryllos Moninas of the Agia Triada Monastery who convinced the sovereign Kostakis Adosidis to carry out research and thus discovered the two entrances. In 1884 the archaeologist Fabricius of the German Archaeological Institute of Athens made an inspection of the island and found the tunnel, however the first 400 meters of the aqueduct were discovered by Victor Guerin in 1853 when he undertook his search for the great spring mentionedby Herodotus.

Nowadays, the Eupalinos Tunnel is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered an international historical reference of civil engineering.

As we said at the beginning, it is located about two kilometers from Pytaghorion in the rural area of Agiades and it is necessary to have your own transport or if you are staying directly in the town on foot.You have to leave the vehicle in the car park and then travel along a dirt road for a quarter of an hour.

An interesting activity to do during your holidays in Samos, to discover how much the ancients were capable of doing without modern equipment and mechanical systems, but who demonstrate ingenuity and resourcefulness even in ancient times, offering us wonderful sites like thiswhich despite everything remain over time.