Fountain

A fountain (from the Latin 'fons' (genitive 'fontis'), a source or spring) is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air to supply drinking water and/or for a decorative or dramatic effect.Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi by Bernini, (1648–51)Fontana della Barcaccia, (1627)Fountains of St. Peter's Square by Carlo Maderno (1614) and Bernini (1677)Triton Fountain by Bernini, (1642)Fontana delle Api (Fountains of the Bees) (1644)Samson and the Lion fountain at Peterhof Palace, Russia (1800–1802)Sea CanalRoman Fountains (1763–80)Danaida FountainFontaine du Palmier, Paris (1809)Fountain in the Place de la Concorde in Paris (1840)Fountain in Trafalgar Square, (1845)Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, New York City (1873)The 'Pont d'eau' from the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibit, created a 'bridge' of water forty meters long and six meters wide.Buckingham Fountain in Chicago (1933)Fountain of Prometheus at the Rockefeller Center in New York City (1933)The battery of water cannon at the Palais de Chaillot at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1937. The water cannon still function.Stravinsky Fountain, next to the Pompidou Center, Paris (1983)Fontaine de la Pyramide, Cour Napoleon I of the Louvre, (1988)Fontaine Cristaux, Homage to Béla Bartok, Jean-Yves Lechevallier, Paris, (1980)Fountain at Raisina Hill, Rajpath near Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi (1929).The Organ Fountain at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli (1550–1572)The Château d'eau and plaza of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900. The fountains were illuminated with different colors at night.The musical fountain of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, with pivoting nozzles to vary the patterns of the water, controlled by computers and accompanied by music (1998)Dubai Fountain in the United Arab Emirates (2009) can shoot water 150 meters in the air, or present computer-choreographed water dancing to musicMultimedia Fountain Roshen is the only one in Ukraine and the largest floating fountain in Europe, built in the river Southern Buh in Vinnytsia City near Festivalny Isle (Kempa Isle)Multimedia Fountain Kangwon Land is considered Asia's largest musical fountain.The Fonte Gaia, Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy by Jacopo della Quercia (1419) (replaced by a copy in 1868)Fountain at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, NetherlandsNamba Walk in Osaka City, JapanThe Jet d'Eau fountain in Geneva, Switzerland (1951), the first modern high-shooting fountainThe Schöner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) in Nuremberg, Germany. (1385–96)Samson and the Lion Fountain (1800–02), Peterhof, RussiaBuckingham Fountain (1927) in ChicagoDubai Fountain (2008), a computer-programmed musical fountain, is 250 m (820 ft) long and can jet water 150 m (490 ft) into the airThe El Alamein Fountain (1959–61) in Sydney, designed by Robert Woodward, was the first 'dandelion' fountainA fountain at Taj Exotica, Goa, IndiaFountains in the Park of the Reserve, Lima, PeruFountain in the National War Memorial, New Delhi, India A fountain (from the Latin 'fons' (genitive 'fontis'), a source or spring) is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air to supply drinking water and/or for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were originally purely functional, connected to springs or aqueducts and used to provide drinking water and water for bathing and washing to the residents of cities, towns and villages. Until the late 19th century most fountains operated by gravity, and needed a source of water higher than the fountain, such as a reservoir or aqueduct, to make the water flow or jet into the air. In addition to providing drinking water, fountains were used for decoration and to celebrate their builders. Roman fountains were decorated with bronze or stone masks of animals or heroes. In the Middle Ages, Moorish and Muslim garden designers used fountains to create miniature versions of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France used fountains in the Gardens of Versailles to illustrate his power over nature. The baroque decorative fountains of Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries marked the arrival point of restored Roman aqueducts and glorified the Popes who built them. By the end of the 19th century, as indoor plumbing became the main source of drinking water, urban fountains became purely decorative. Mechanical pumps replaced gravity and allowed fountains to recycle water and to force it high into the air. The Jet d'Eau in Lake Geneva, built in 1951, shoots water 140 metres (460 ft) in the air. The highest such fountain in the world is King Fahd's Fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which spouts water 260 metres (850 ft) above the Red Sea. Fountains are used today to decorate city parks and squares; to honor individuals or events; for recreation and for entertainment. A Splash pad or spray pool allows city residents to enter, get wet and cool off in summer. The musical fountain combines moving jets of water, colored lights and recorded music, controlled by a computer, for dramatic effects. Fountains can themselves also be musical instruments played by obstruction of one or more of their water jets.Drinking fountains provide clean drinking water in public buildings, parks and public spaces. Ancient civilizations built stone basins to capture and hold precious drinking water. A carved stone basin, dating to around 2000 BC, was discovered in the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash in modern Iraq. The ancient Assyrians constructed a series of basins in the gorge of the Comel River, carved in solid rock, connected by small channels, descending to a stream. The lowest basin was decorated with carved reliefs of two lions. The ancient Egyptians had ingenious systems for hoisting water up from the Nile for drinking and irrigation, but without a higher source of water it was not possible to make water flow by gravity, and no Egyptian fountains or pictures of fountains have been found. The ancient Greeks used aqueducts and gravity-powered fountains to distribute water. According to ancient historians, fountains existed in Athens, Corinth, and other ancient Greek cities in the 6th century BC as the terminating points of aqueducts which brought water from springs and rivers into the cities. In the 6th century BC, the Athenian ruler Peisistratos built the main fountain of Athens, the Enneacrounos, in the Agora, or main square. It had nine large cannons, or spouts, which supplied drinking water to local residents. Greek fountains were made of stone or marble, with water flowing through bronze pipes and emerging from the mouth of a sculpted mask that represented the head of a lion or the muzzle of an animal. Most Greek fountains flowed by simple gravity, but they also discovered how to use principle of a siphon to make water spout, as seen in pictures on Greek vases. The Ancient Romans built an extensive system of aqueducts from mountain rivers and lakes to provide water for the fountains and baths of Rome. The Roman engineers used lead pipes instead of bronze to distribute the water throughout the city. The excavations at Pompeii, which revealed the city as it was when it was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, uncovered free-standing fountains and basins placed at intervals along city streets, fed by siphoning water upwards from lead pipes under the street. The excavations of Pompeii also showed that the homes of wealthy Romans often had a small fountain in the atrium, or interior courtyard, with water coming from the city water supply and spouting into a small bowl or basin.