Eupalinos

Eupalinos

Eupalinos (Ancient Greek: Εὐπαλῖνος) or Eupalinus of Megara was an ancient Greek engineer who built the Tunnel of Eupalinos on Samos Island: 27  in the late 6th century BC.: 27  Though the construction of the tunnel has been attributed to the tyrant Polycrates of Samos,: 27  it is now considered to be a later construction and having been built between 550 and 530 BC.: 149  In any case, the tunnel was, and is, regarded as a major feat of engineering.: 149  The tunnel 1,036 m (3,399 ft) long conveyed water from a spring near Mount Kastro through the mountain into the ancient city of Samos (modern Pythagoreio).: 149 : 27  It was the longest one of its time and it still exists. The tunnel was excavated from both ends,: 27 : 173  but it is not the first one known to be built in this manner -- a tunnel channeling water to Jerusalem was built from both ends at the same time earlier, in the 8th century BC.: 173  The route of the tunnel does not follow a direct line -- for several hundred meters on both ends, it does follow a straight line, but in the middle third, there are several turns.: 29 : 150  Additionally, the tunnel has two parts: A main tunnel and a trench running along the left side of the main tunnel.: 27  The main tunnel is 1.8 m × 1.8 m (5.9 ft × 5.9 ft) square in cross-section.: 27  And, while the main tunnel is horizontal, the trench gets progressively deeper with an average gradient of 0.4% and gets from 3.5 to 8.5 m (11 to 28 ft) deep.: 28 : 150  On the bottom of the trench ran a terracotta pipeline carrying the water.: 27 : 149  Eupalinos is considered the first hydraulic engineer in history whose name has been passed down. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Eupalinos is the 116th most popular engineer (down from 105th in 2019), the 427th most popular biography from Greece (down from 386th in 2019) and the most popular Greek Engineer.