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Born in Béziers, Hérault, France, Riquet was the man behind the huge task of building an artificial waterway to link the southern coast of France with the Bay of Biscay. The logistics of this were immense and very complicated, so much so that other engineers and even the Romans had discussed the idea but not proceeded with it. Even so, Louis XVI was keen for the project to proceed, largely because of the increasing cost and danger of transporting cargo and trade around southern Spain where pirates were frequent.
As a youngster Riquet was only interested in mathematics and science, and at the age of 19 he married Catherine de Milhau. After returning to farming salt taxes in Languedoc he became farmer-general of Languedoc-Roussillon. Riquet was now a wealthy man who was given permission by the King to raise his own taxes. This gave him the wealth to go along with his vision and technical expertise.
Still, many problems lay ahead, including navigating around the many hills, and providing a system that would feed the canal with water through the dry summer months. The advancement in lock engineering and then the creation of a 6 million cubic metre artificial lake - the Bassin de Saint-Ferreol, solved this.
Riquet was involved in the construction of the canal from 1665 to 1680, which was when he died. The canal was finished a year later. Overall it has 65 locks and is over 240 miles long.
Background
The Canal du Midi