title: Jerwan
text: # Jerwan
  
  Jerwan is a locality north of Mosul in the Nineveh Province of Iraq. The site is clear of vegetation and is sparsely settled.
  
  The site is famous for the ruins of an enormous aqueduct crossing the Khenis River, constructed of more than two million dressed stones and using stone arches and waterproof cement. Some consider it to be the world's oldest aqueduct, predating anything the Romans built by five centuries.
  
  ## The Aqueduct of Jerwan
  
  The aqueduct is part of the larger Atrush Canal built by the Assyrian king Sennacherib between 703 and 690 BC to water Ninevah's extensive gardens, with water diverted from Khenis gorge, 50 km to the north.
  
  An inscription on the aqueduct reads:
  
      Jerwan AqueductsJerwan Aqueducts"Sennacherib king of the world king of Assyria. Over a great distance I had a watercourse directed to the environs of Nineveh, joining together the waters.... Over steep-sided valleys I spanned an aqueduct of white limestone blocks, I made those waters flow over it."
  
  Some scholars believe the legends of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were actually Sennacherib’s extensive gardens in Nineveh, not Babylon.
  
  