Today, millions of people in the world have hot and cold running water, showers, and toilets thanks to modern plumbing. Even people at the top of 100-story buildings can get water pumped up pipes into their homes. But alas, getting clean water was not always so easy.

Romans

The ancient Roman Empire developed plumbing systems that were a wonder. Wealthy people had pipes of hot water running under their floors to heat their homes. The earliest pipes were made of lead. The Latin word for lead is plumbum, from which English gets the word plumbing.

Romans brought their systems for conveying fresh water to all corners of their empire. Aqueducts still stretch across France, Spain, and Italy. Some were even still in use as late as the 20th century. The city of Bath, England, got its name from the spectacular public baths, available in cold, tepid, and hot, that the Romans constructed over local springs. Even today, people go to Bath for a dip in the natural water.

Romans also constructed public fountains so that their citizens could get clean water. This was about all the plumbing that most people had access to, however. In most of the Roman Empire, getting water involved hauling jugs back and forth to the fountain rather than turning on a pipe.

Babylon

Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar may be famous for many things, but he also commissioned the great plumbing achievement called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. This structure was a sort of hollow hill about 75 feet tall at its highest and covering seven acres. Ancient plumbers used pipes and pumps of wood, clay and copper to bring water to the top and let it gently cascade downward, watering the fruit trees and crops on its slopes.

Egypt

Egypt attracts tourists and scientists for its pyramids and sphinx. But many historically-minded engineers like to take a look at its ancient plumbing.

Egyptians depended on well water; some wells were dug through up to 300 feet of solid rock. From the well, sometimes water was pumped to more convenient places, like the bathrooms of the wealthy, in brass and copper pipes.

But if the living wealthy were used to a good bath, so were the dead. Archaeologists have found ancient washbasins buried in some tombs. The finest were equipped with a drain in the bottom and a little lead plug attached to a drain that let the water out away from the tomb.

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