At one time, in a deep antiquity, the ingenious invention - a gutter, turned later in a sewer network was made in urban settlements of the first civilizations. The most ancient sewer system is found out at excavation of city Mokhendjo-Daro in India, and it dates from III-II millennium BC. The houses of this mysterious city had no windows and architectural ornaments, but had "conveniences":a room for washing, often separate well and sewer structures. There was also a common urban sewer system most accomplished for that time. It had the main channel and drains for rain water. The wells and the sewer systems were laid out with a brick. In Mokhendjo-Daro the well kept public pool for washing was also found out.

The art of water supply and water drain for some reasons has prospered in Ancient Rome. The problem of removal of the polluted water was important for Rome, as a lot of water was used in city, in particular, in a plenty of terms famous Roman hot baths. The terms of Diokletian were the largest among the Roman term - they contained 3200 visitors. The underground furnaces warmed water in such an amount, that, on modern accounts, it was enough for bathing of 100 thousand people per day at the rate of 200 l water on one visitor. The great amount of water from a term needed to be removed somewhere. Therefore sewer system of Rome represented the largest hydraulic engineering complex, the core of which was basic water removing artery "Cloak maxima ", that means in translation "the biggest cloak ".According to a legend, an etruss hydrotechnique worker began to build it in VII century BC. Gradually it put on in stone clothes. General length of cloak made 800 m, from which 320passed under ground. Total length of a sewer network of Rome is not established precisely, but it is possible to estimate its sizes according to the following fact. The commander Agrippa, living in the I century BC, and having the title of curator of a waterpipe and water drain of the Roman empire, at survey of a sewer network of the Capital spent all the day for its detour by a boat. There was a special law in Rome, allowing linking to the urban water drain by the private houses, only on conditions of payment of the special tax - cloakorium. The water drain served also public lavatories, which were 144 in Rome. The waste water was dumped in the river Tibr.