It was probably in Alexandria that Archimedes came up with the invention that bore his name throughout the ancient world: the Archimedes water screw. Called “the snail” because of its shape, the screw enabled farmers to move water over long distances and even uphill by means of its continuous twisting motion. The ancient historian Diodorus asserts that Archimedes’s invention enabled the Ptolemies to irrigate most of the Nile Delta.25 It has remained in use in the poorer parts of rural Egypt until today.
