What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
By the 19th century, Cloaca Maxima had became a tourist attraction, the first visitor attraction of its kind.
Some parts of Cloaca Maxima are still in use today, testimony indeed to Roman engineering and town planning. In fact, the ancient sewer stands as a highly valued and sacred symbol of Roman culture.
The sewer system running under Cologne in Germany dates back to the 1st century CE and the Roman Empire. The network was upgraded and expanded in the 19th century with tunnels and channels. Kaiser Wilhelm II was slated to attend the grand opening, and chandeliers were installed in the ceiling to lend the subterranean facility a suitably noble ambiance. In the end the emperor canceled his visit, but one of the chambers, the Chandelier Hall, today hosts music concerts and other cultural events.
Occasional guided tours take place throughout the rest of the sewer complex, a route that takes in the original Roman walls.
Besides the drainage channels, visitors can walk the network of 19th-century sewers by joining a guided tour of the system. The best remnants are located below Passeig de Sant Joan, where the old stairs and wall dividers are located.
Sources: (UNESCO) (Britannica) (British Association of Urological Surgeons) (Thames Water) (Visit Brussels)
See also: What exactly did the past smell like?
Barcelona's sewer system features vestiges of its Roman past, the drainage channels (pictured) that once serviced Barcino, an ancient Roman colony that stood on the site of the present-day city.
The Brussels sewers thread their way under the Belgian capital fed by the Senne River. The sewer network first came to use in the 17th century and was expanded 200 years later to measure an impressive 350 km (217 mi) of tunnels, chambers, and channels.
Vienna's sewer system is famous as one of the locations where 'The Third Man' was filmed. The movie, released in 1949, features a scene where Harry Lime (Orson Welles) is chased by police through the sewers' dark and dank chambers.
Members of the public can join a fascinating tour of this mid-19th century underworld of tunnels and channels, suitably called the "Third Man Tour-Sewer."
In Paris, tours of the city's sewer system have been popular since late 19th century, and still take place.
Following the Great Stink, Abbey Mills Pumping Station was completed in 1863 to lift sewage from the now expanded London sewer system.
Crossness Pumping Station in the London Borough of Bexley is also open to the public. Described as a masterpiece of Victorian engineering, the building today houses a museum.
The museum focuses on the Great Stink and the role of Crossness in improving London's sewer system.
Archaeologists working at Harappa, an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, unearthed evidence of an urban sanitation system, built during the city's final phase of occupation from 2200 to 1900 BCE.
Similarly at Mohenjo-daro, also in modern-day Pakistan, excavations revealed covered drains lining the city's major roads, into which waste water would have been channeled.
Abbey Mills was designed by English civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and is today worked on by sewer technicians known as "Flushers." The pumping station is occasionally open to the public during London Sewer Week.
In England, however, and especially in London, most people were used to disposing of their excrement in rivers. But then the "Great Stink" occurred, an event during July and August 1858 in which exceptionally hot weather exacerbated the dreadful stench of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames. The provision of an integrated and fully functioning sewer system for the capital became a government priority.
One of the earliest examples of a wastewater system can be found at Skara Brae, a stone-built Neolithic settlement in Orkney, Scotland. This primitive design featured "toilets" and drains in each house, and included water used to flush waste into a drain and out to the ocean.
The sewer network under Prague features some of the most attractive tunnels of their kind found anywhere. The system was built on the orders of Emperor Franz Josef I and were designed more to impress than to get the job done.
Evidence of earthenware sewer pipes dating back to this period have been found in the ruins of the Temple of Bel at Nippur, an ancient Sumerian city located in modern-day Iraq.
Also in Iraq, the ruins of Uruk demonstrate the first examples of brick constructed latrines, from 3200 BCE.
Clay pipes, meanwhile, were also laid down by the Hittites, an Anatolian people whose empire centered on the city of Hattusa. Hittite engineers crafted theirs with easily detachable and replaceable segments, crude but effective technical innovations that allowed for cleaning.
The Mesopotamians are credited with introducing clay sewer pipes, around 4000 BCE.
In 1596, the first modern flushable toilet was described by English courtier Sir John Harrington. His ingenious device called for a half-meter (2 ft) deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin, and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern.
The ancient Egyptians installed an intricate network of copper drainage pipes underneath the Pyramid of Sahure. Later, around 2000 BCE, the ancient Greek civilization of Crete, known as the Minoan civilization, were responsible for constructing sanitation facilities connected to stone sewers that were regularly flushed by rain.
It was the Romans, however, who built what is regarded as the world's earliest integrated, fully functioning sewage system. Known as Cloaca Maxima, literally "greatest sewer," it was likely completed in 600 BCE, and by the 1st century CE had been enlarged and connected to no less than 11 aqueducts. The outflow spilled into the Tiber River at Forum Boarium.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, there is little record of other sanitation systems in most of Europe until the High Middle Ages. Roads and streets were used as convenient depositories for the contents of chamber pots.
The Paris Sewer Museum chronicles the history of the French capital's sewers. It also details the role of sewer workers and various methods of water treatment.
The Brussels Sewer Museum facilitates exploration of the historic chambers as a self-guided tour. The program also includes access to the working sewer tunnels.
Described as a "Bohemian sewer," Prague's subterranean wonder was completed in 1905, building work having started in 1896. Today a visit underground to admire the intricate brickwork is one of the more unusual things to do in the Czech capital.
We think nothing of flushing a toilet and getting rid of human waste. One pull on the handle and the job's taken care of. But sending our business on its way is only half the story. Once past the U-bend, excreta begins a long and fascinating journey, one that has its origins in antiquity and some of the world's earliest sanitation systems. Today, modern waste management plants conveniently dispose of our processed liquids and solids. But how did previous civilizations deal with the problem of sewage?
Click through and flush out the facts behind history's fascinating sewage systems.
How did ancient civilizations deal with sewage?
Get to the bottom of how the sewage system was invented
LIFESTYLE Sewage
We think nothing of flushing a toilet and getting rid of human waste. One pull on the handle and the job's taken care of. But sending our business on its way is only half the story. Once past the U-bend, excreta begins a long and fascinating journey, one that has its origins in antiquity and some of the world's earliest sanitation systems. Today, modern waste management plants conveniently dispose of our processed liquids and solids. But how did previous civilizations deal with the problem of sewage?
Click through and flush out the facts behind history's fascinating sewage systems.