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At first glance, the most striking feature of a Roman aqueduct is the mathematical precision of the arches. Rome had a very professional corps of engineers who made a lasting contribution to Western civilization by building them. Pont du Gard, the aqueduct spanning the Gardon River north of Nimes, France, is one of the best surviving examples of Roman aqueduct construction. Zero and 90-degree angles are fairly easy to lay out. Anything in between is another problem. The precise measurement of angles other than right angles was rarely done and, in the absence of trigonometry, would have been pointless. Since nothing resembling the precision of modern theodolites existed, elevations were determined by an arrangement that was even more cumbersome than plane surveying. The Roman practice of reducing a problem of irregular shapes to a series of manageable-sized orthogonal blocks may have been primitive, but it got remarkable results.