List of Roman canals
This is a list of Roman canals. Roman canals were typically multi-purpose structures, intended for irrigation, drainage, land reclamation, flood control and navigation where feasible. This list focuses on the larger canals, particularly navigational canals, as recorded by ancient geographers and still traceable by modern archaeology. Channels which served the needs of urban water supply are covered at the List of aqueducts in the Roman Empire.
Greek engineers were the first to use canal locks, by which they regulated the water flow in the Ancient Suez Canal as early as the 3rd century BC. The Romans under Trajan too secured the entrance to the Red Sea with sluice gates, while they extended the canal south to the height of modern Cairo in order to improve its water inflow. The existence of ancient pound locks to bridge height gaps has been proposed by a number of authors, but in the absence of clear archaeological evidence the question seems to be permanently undecided.
Canals
By chronological order:Italy
Gaul
Germania
Britain
Egypt
Moesia
Projected canals
In the following, Roman canal projects which were never completed for various reasons are listed.| Planning date | Connection | Canal type | Comment | Refs. |
| c. 54–68 AD | Rome–Ostia | Inland to coast | Planned by Nero | |
| c. 54–68 AD | Puteoli–Ostia | Inland to coast | Starting from Lake Avernus near Puteoli, it was intended by Nero to run parallel to Mediterranean; length upon completion would have been 160 Roman miles | |
| c. 54–68 AD | Isthmus of Corinth | Coast to coast | To avoid long and dangerous circumnavigation of the Peloponnese peninsula; several abandoned building projects in antiquity aimed at replacing Diolkos trackway; serious work begun by Nero, but aborted after his death | |
| 55 AD | Saône–Moselle | Inland | Another ambitious project: would have connected Mediterranean Sea with North Sea via Rhone, Saône, Moselle and Rhine; presupposes capacity to construct pound locks though, for which there is as yet no certain evidence; yet, plan finally dropped not due to technological reasons, but political intrigues | |
| 111 AD | Lake Sapanca–Sea of Marmara | Inland to coast | For facilitating transfer of inland produce to seaside; subject of correspondence between governor Pliny the Younger and emperor Trajan; would have required to overcome difference in height of 32 m |