Dr. Deniz Karakaş follows the flows of water pipeline politics in the Ottoman Empire, through Mimar Sinan's 16th century Uzun Kemer Ottoman Aqueduct Bridge.
On the outskirts of Istanbul, the ruins of the Uzun Kemer Aqueduct symbolise the superhuman strength of modern Ottoman engineering. Yet, constructed on the foundations of old Constantinople, with methods drawn from the Roman and Byzantine Empires, these grand architectures really make visible the everyday actors of empire. Drawn from Serbia, Albania, Greece, and Armenia, the hired hands of suyolcu (water conduit experts) and lağımcı (diggers) were crucial in the transfer of knowledge, their skills often redirected for the imperial mines or military. Beyond the shallows, the pipeline politics of water supply reveals how power flowed within empires, exposing the Ottomans on - or under - the ground.
PRESENTER: Dr. Deniz Karakaş, visiting scholar in the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane University.
ART: Uzun Kemer Ottoman Aqueduct Bridge, Mimar Sinan (c. 1560s).
IMAGE: ‘The Aqueduct of Uzun Kemer near Belgrade Forest'.
SOUNDS: Daniel Birch.
PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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For the construction history of the Canal du Midi, see Chandra Mukerji, Impossible Engineering: Technology and Territoriality on the Canal du Midi. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

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