the.com/aorta
the body's main highway, pumping your entire blood supply through it every single minute
means The aorta is the largest artery in the body, carrying oxygen-rich blood out of the heart's left ventricle to be distributed everywhere else.
from Straight from the Greek aortē, a word Aristotle himself put to anatomical use. It comes from the verb aeirein, 'to lift up' or 'to raise' — the same root behind 'artery' — likely because these great vessels were seen as rising from the heart, or because they were imagined as carrying air rather than blood. Latin borrowed it as aorta, and English took it from there.
- diameter
- About the width of a garden hose
- arch shape
- Curves like a candy cane over the heart
- pressure load
- Survives 2.5 billion heartbeats in a lifetime
- layered wall
- Three tough layers prevent catastrophic rupture
- name origin
- Greek for 'to lift,' as in lifting blood
for instance
aorta of henry gray — detailed anatomical illustration in gray's anatomy (1858), the most referenced medical drawing ever made