Get the latest tech news
Mud, water and wood: The system that kept a 1604-year-old city afloat
Most modern structures are built to last 50 years or so, but ingenious ancient engineering has kept this watery city afloat for more than 1,600 years – using only wood.
These trees – larch, oak, alder, pine, spruce and elm of a length ranging between 3.5m (11.5ft) to less than 1m (3ft) – have been holding up stone palazzos and tall belltowers for centuries, in a true marvel of engineering leveraging the forces of physics and nature. The battipali would hammer down the piles by hand, and they would sing an ancient song to keep the rhythm – a haunting and repetitive melody with lyrics that praise Venice, its republican glory, its Catholic faith, and declare death to the enemy of the time, the Turks. Caterina Francesca Izzo was working on the field, core drilling, collecting and analyzing wood samples from underneath churches, belltowers and from the side of the canals, which were being emptied out and cleaned up at the time.
Or read this on Hacker News
