Caen Hill

The flight of locks were engineer John Rennie's solution to climbing the very steep hill in Devizes, and were the last part of the 87 mile route of the Kennet and Avon canal to be completed. Because of the steepness of the terrain there was not the space to use the normal arrangement of water pounds between the locks. As a result, the 16 locks on Caen Hill have unusually large side ponds to store the water needed to operate.

More photos here.

Edit: there are actually 29 locks on the hill into Devizes, which have a rise of 237 feet in 2 miles, but it is this group of 16 that are so well known and are such an amazing sight.