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Archimedes' screw, also called the Archimedean screw or screwpump, is a machine historically used for transferring water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation ditches. The screw pump is commonly attributed to Archimedes on the occasion of his visit to Egypt, but this tradition may reflect only that the apparatus was unknown to the Greeks before Hellenistic times and introduced in his lifetime by unknown Greek engineers. Some writers have suggested that the device may have been in use in Assyria some 350 years earlier.

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  Archimedes' screw was operated by hand and could raise water efficiently
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  An Archimedes' screw in Huseby south of Växjö Sweden
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  Archimedes' screw]
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  Roman screw used to dewater mines in Spain
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  Modern Archimedes' screws which have replaced some of the windmills used to drain the polders at Kinderdijk in the Netherlands
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  Archimedes' screw as a form of art by Tony Cragg at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands