Les 9 Écluses de Fonseranes,Tunnel le Malpas,Étang de Montady.Video 4k,Béziers,Francia,walking tour
The Ecluses of Fonseranes, commonly known as the Nine Ecluses of Fonseranes, are a series of locks (nine gates and eight basins) located in Béziers, in the Hérault department, and constitute one of the main structures of the Canal du Midi. Since 1858, the year of construction of the Orb aqueduct, the last two have been disused. The series of locks includes eight oval-shaped basins (specific to the Canal du Midi), and therefore nine gates [note 1], which allow vessels to overcome a difference in height of 21.50 m over a length of 312 m. The Malpas Tunnel is a tunnel dug in 1679-1680 under the Ensérune hill in the Hérault department of France, through which the Canal du Midi flows. It was the first tunnel built to accommodate a navigable canal. 173 meters long, 6 meters wide, and 8.5 meters high, with 30 arches supporting the vault, the tunnel avoided the need for an additional lock on the canal’s route. The Montady pond is an ancient pond drained in the Middle Ages, located in the west of the Hérault department, halfway between Béziers and Narbonne, in the French municipalities of Montady and Colombiers. Thanks to a series of radial drainage channels dug in the 13th century, the water was directed to a central collector and from there, via a counterslope ditch, evacuated to the Capestang pond and, through a tunnel, under the Ensérune hill (which passes beneath the Malpas tunnel).