One of the things that struck me as both unusual and unique at Augusta Raurica is the fact that the museum is sitting in the middle of a town; imagine growing up with a Roman theater or ruins twenty feet outside your door.
The location of the main forum, now an open field. This would have been a colonnade with an open center, as we saw in the past in Greece and Turkey
Location of the main temple of the forum. The Latin reads "To the goddess Rome and the defied Caesar Augustus."
Looking from the forum towards the theater.
The location encompasses a fairly large area, so if you want to see everything, you need to go walk.
This is the remains of the old amphitheater, where spectacles were held and gladiators fought.
"Are you not entertained?" - Gladiator
Temple - or what is left it. As with many structures, the stones were used for other purposes. At this location, altars to Apollo, Aescupalius, and Hercules have been recovered.
Local inhabitants. Surprisingly, they gave rather confused directions.
Yowsa! Moar purty piktures........:) Romans and their gladiators.....nowadays we have the NFL, the NBA, MLB, NHL.....almost as much violence. Thanks for all the visuals TB.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - I think this is the first Amphitheater I have been in that was not really a theater. Not nearly as impressive as it probably was - but in the silence you can still hear the sounds of battles past.
DeleteIt looks so isolated. Or maybe rural? From the trees in dormant state, I take it you're not there at peak tourist season. Love the local inhabitants. :)
ReplyDeleteLeigh - Ironically if I turned 180 degrees from the horses, there would be a highway half a mile a way. It seems isolated from the pictures, but it is on the edge of the town of Kaiseraugust, which is itself (now) a suburb of Basel. Somehow European towns seem to maintain their quaint appearance in a way U.S. towns do not.
DeletePerhaps surprisingly, February is not peak tourist season, at least for non-skiing locations.