When Water Flows Uphill

I wrote in a previous post about an aqueduct that I came across while hiking in the Golan above Nahal Zevitan.  The technology involved in the building of this aqueduct is interesting.  The question is as follows:  how do you get water from a spring in a gully to the top of the hill where the flocks are?

First, a bit of topography.  The Golan is a raised, flat plain which is cut (along tectonic faults) by streams.  The streams are fed by springs.  North of the Sea of Galilee, the Golan plain slightly slopes to the south, providing a relatively constant decrease in elevation as you move from the Golan to the estuary of Beit Zaida on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee.  This is the area of Nahal Zevitan.  The spring which feeds the Nahal cuts a deep gorge through the plain on its way to the Sea.

The aqueduct which you meet on the path of Nahal Zevitan was built by Bedouins.  They diverted the water from the spring into the aqueduct, which has a very slight slope downwards.  The aqueduct has such a slight slope, in fact, that the slope of the plain above is greater.   The water flows down, but the elevation of the surrounding land decreases faster.  In this way, the water from the aqueduct “climbs out” of the gorge to the flocks and animal sheds on the plain.  Love the technology!