Ancient Plumbing: Toilets and Water Systems in Ancient Greece

When we think of Ancient Greece, images of the Parthenon, philosophical debates, and epic myths typically come to mind. Yet beneath this celebrated cultural legacy lies an equally remarkable achievement: sophisticated sanitation systems that shaped urban life for millennia.

Our Founder recently traveled to Greece to explore the country's ancient water and sanitation infrastructure. From Bronze Age palaces to Classical-era public latrines, the Greeks developed hydraulic technologies that would influence civilizations for over a thousand years. This blog explores the evolution of Greek toilets and water systems, revealing how these innovations reflected—and enabled—one of history's most influential civilizations.

The Minoan Period: Bronze Age Innovations

The story of Greek sanitation begins around 3000 BCE on the island of Crete, where the Minoan civilization grew in isolation. Crete's geography had its challenges: a variable climate, mountainous terrain, and critically low water availability. Yet the Minoans transformed these constraints with hydraulic innovation.

Left: 2 images of Knossos Palace drainage systems. Right: Inside Knossos Palace's priestess room with a washing basin in the front (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

From the early Minoan era (starting 3200 BCE), water supply management was considered essential to community development. At Knossos, the capital city, residents built a central courtyard with baths that were filled and emptied using terra-cotta pipes—a system similar to modern plumbing principles. These extensive sewerage and drainage networks connected households and the palace across the entire settlement, incorporating outdoor gutters and underground indoor drainage.

The crowning achievement of Minoan sanitation was the flush toilet. While the actual toilet at Knossos is now too fragile for public viewing due to its age, we know that water could be poured through a hole in the floor just outside the toilet door, where an underground channel linked to a vertical clay pipe beneath the toilet seat. This meant the toilet could be flushed year-round—even during rainless summers—by an attendant or the user themselves. The toilet in the residential quarter of the palace of Minos at Knossos is potentially the earliest flush toilet in history.

Similar flush toilets have been discovered in living rooms throughout Minoan Crete, including at Phaistos, Tylissos, Malia, and Gournia. The houses, baths, and flushed toilets were all connected to central drainage and sewerage systems. Another well-preserved example was found on the island of Thera (now Santorini), dating to approximately 1550 BCE in the Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri.

The Minoans understood something fundamental that many ancient societies overlooked: water supply and waste management weren't luxuries—they were the foundation of public health and urban life. Their innovations would become the template for Greek sanitation technology for the next millennium.

Hellenistic Greeks and the Challenge of Urban Sanitation

Approximately 1,000 years after the Minoans, the ancient Greeks of the Classical and Hellenistic periods (1st millennium BCE) expanded upon these earlier innovations. They developed large-scale public latrines—essentially large rooms with bench seats connected to drainage systems—and installed toilets in middle-class houses. These public facilities featured running water systems that flushed waste through connected sewerage networks.

An Athenian public bath ruin (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

The sophistication of Greek hydraulic systems extended beyond public spaces. By the 2nd century CE, most houses in ancient Athens had their own private toilets. Wealthy residents enjoyed even more elaborate facilities: private baths in luxury mansions featured multiple chambers, including cold rooms and heated pools where water was continuously warmed through underground heating systems.

A panorama of Athenian water piping under the Museum of the Acropolis (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

However, drainage didn't guarantee effective sanitation. During the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BCE, Athens faced a severe public health crisis. As people from the countryside fled to the city to avoid Spartan raids, the population surge overwhelmed existing waste management systems. Cesspits were filled beyond capacity, creating conditions ripe for disease.

The result was a plague—likely typhoid fever—sweeping through the city. This catastrophe prompted Athens to abolish cesspits in house yards, replacing them with improved drainage and sewerage systems. The documented improvements to Athens' sewerage and drainage networks following this plague demonstrate how the Greeks understood the need waste and wastewater management the hard way.

Left: Water piping in Athens. Center: A well in an Athenian home's courtyard. Right: Water terra cotta pipes with interlocking features (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

The Greeks also developed professional sanitation services. Both in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, many cities employed special groups to remove organic waste from houses. The orator Demosthenes called these workers "caretakers of city ordure," noting it was considered degrading work. More commonly, they were known as "koprologoi." Each homeowner was charged for this waste removal service.

Engineering Excellence: Terra-Cotta Pipes and Water Management

The technical sophistication of Greek plumbing deserves attention. Their terra-cotta pipe systems were featured a jointed design that allowed pipes to connect snugly without much adhesive. These interlocking systems functioned similarly to modern pipe connections.

A display in the Athens train system with pipes from a 5th-century BCE aqueduct (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

Examples of Greek hydraulic infrastructure remain visible today. The Pisistratid aqueduct, dating from the 5th century BCE, can still be seen in Athens' subway system, where underground archaeological areas display layers of successive civilizations. These ancient terra-cotta pipes demonstrate how advanced Greek water-delivery systems were, predating the Romans' famous aqueducts by centuries.

From the 6th through the 1st century BCE, Greeks developed increasingly sophisticated hydraulic works. The main sewerage and drainage networks of Classical and Hellenistic towns delivered stormwater and human waste to collection basins constructed outside city limits. However, the Greeks didn't simply dispose of this waste—they recycled it. Storm and wastewater were conveyed through brick-lined conduits to agricultural fields, where they irrigated and fertilized fruit orchards and cultivated crops.

Hygiene and the Divine: Greek Gods of Health

The Greeks didn't merely value water and sanitation—they elevated it to the realm of the sacred. Their pantheon included deities associated specifically with healing and hygiene, reflecting the cultural importance of health and cleanliness.

Asclepius, the god of medicine, was born mortal but achieved divine status through his healing abilities. After the plague devastated Athens' population in 420 BCE, dedications to Asclepius increased dramatically as citizens sought divine protection against disease. His worship became intrinsically linked to public health crises and recovery.

Goddess Hygeia (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

Asclepius had a daughter named Hygieia—the root of our modern word "hygiene." She personified physical and mental wellness and was often depicted alongside her father with a snake drinking from a cup she offered. The Greeks understood that hygiene was holistic, encompassing mental health and overall well-being within a comprehensive concept of wellness.

This divine association underscores how deeply the Greeks understood the connection between cleanliness, health, and civilization itself.

Where Are All the Greek Ruins? The Roman Connection

Here's a paradox: when visiting Greece today to explore ancient sanitation sites, many of the best-preserved toilets and baths are actually Roman-era constructions dating from the 2nd to 5th century CE.

The Romans didn't invent sanitation systems. Rather, they adopted and refined Greek hydraulic technology, then implemented these innovations across their vast empire. The sophisticated Greek systems earned Roman respect and emulation, leading to widespread adoption throughout Roman-controlled territories. Many public toilets preserved in Greece today were built during Roman rule or potentially converted from earlier Greek structures.

The public toilets found beneath Athens' Museum of the Acropolis showcases this Roman influence. These facilities include the famous "Vespasianae"—named after Emperor Vespasian, who championed the construction of public toilets throughout the empire. These three-sided facilities featured drainage trenches running into the main sewer beneath the central street. While the wooden bench seats have long since deteriorated, the drainage trenches remain. One documented facility could accommodate 7 or 8 people simultaneously, which was standard practice in the ancient world.

Videos ofthe Bathhouse of the Winds in Athens (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

The Bathhouse of the Winds in Athens demonstrates the longevity of these Greco-Roman principles. Originally constructed as the Hammam of Abid Effendi during Ottoman rule in the 15th century BCE, it operated as one of Athens' only remaining public baths. Located near the Roman marketplace, it featured drop toilets connected to drainage systems and, by the 1800s, included separate wings for men and women. This facility remained operational until 1965!

Lessons from Ancient Greece

The evolution of Greek systems reveals fundamental truths about civilization itself. From the Minoans' Bronze Age drainage systems to the Hellenistic Greeks' public latrines to Roman refinements of Greek engineering, we see communities progressively understanding that successful urban life requires effective water and waste management.

The Greeks understood that water wasn't merely for drinking and bathing - it was critical infrastructure. It represented public health. It was, in their worldview, divine. They constructed systems that endured for millennia.

These ancient innovations laid the groundwork for modern water and wastewater. The terra-cotta jointed pipes, the flush toilet mechanisms, the public latrine designs, the connection between hygiene and public health...all of these concepts that seem obvious to us today were pioneered and perfected by ancient engineers working thousands of years ago.

When touring ancient ruins, those drainage channels and excavated latrines deserve recognition alongside more celebrated monuments. Without effective systems, there could be no stable urban centers. No philosophical schools, no democratic assemblies, no theatrical performances, no architectural achievements.

The history of Greek sanitation reminds us that the most fundamental human needs often reveal the most about a society's values, ingenuity, and priorities. It's a legacy that continues to flow through modern water and sanitation systems worldwide.