It’s Ancient History

The Pont du Gard  is an aqueduct in southern France.   Built by the Romans in the 1st C AD, it carried an estimated 44,000,000 gallons of water a day to the citizens of Nimes.  Serious flooding  over the years has washed away other bridges  of more recent construction in the area, but the Pont du Gard still stands two thousand years later.

Nearby is an olive tree …

and beside the olive tree is a plaque with the inscription: “I was born in 908 AD in Spain and was planted by the Pont du Gard in 1988 – 1080 years later.”

Still in France, this is from an old slide taken over 40 years ago on my first visit to Europe –

The ancient Greek statue, Venus de Milo – believed to have been created sometime between 130 and 100 BC.  That is a much younger me to the right of the statue.

The marble quarries of Carrara in Italy are said to be the oldest continuously used industrial site in the world, going back to at least the 2nd C BC.  Michelangelo is said to have valued the blue-grey marble of Carrara above all others.  His David is carved from marble from these quarries.  The Pantheon in Rome, Marble Arch in London and the Oslo Opera house all contain marble from Carrara. 

Mayan ruins at Coba in Mexico.  The site already had a sizeable population by the 1st C AD but much of the construction dates to between 6th and 10th C.

Ailsa’s travel theme is: Ancient