There were loads of statues and amazing mosaic floors.
Another example of a room with a mosaic floor with frescoes on the walls.
Back out into the town the next stop was the Temple of Diana - again restored, but much of the pillars are original stone. I prefer to see restored sites like this, showing how it really looked, than seeing the original stones just lying in place on the ground where they fell over the centuries. What's so interesting about this town is that modern life just goes on around most of these ancient sites. This site is on a modern day road with townspeople and tourists alike just walking and driving past, the former taking no notice, the latter in awe.
The Roman Forum. Ancient town, new town. I love this kind of thing!
The Puente Romano - the Roman bridge.
On the other side of the bridge was this stretch of Roman wall - I have no idea what it is relating to. Also in the collage is an invasive introduced species of terrapin from North America, the Red Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) and Cormorants sitting on the jetty.
On our walk back to the Moho, we passed the archaeological site of Moreria, which is excavating around the old city walls. I don't know which came first, the modern building or the archaelogical site. I suspect the latter, or there wouldn't be a nice space under the building for the dig.
The site was closed for the day as we walked past so I could only take some photos through the railings.
In this image I have lightened up the shadows so that the interior of the dig shows. There is really quite a large site underneath this building (or buildings).
And there we have the amazing town of Merida! This wasn't the last of our Roman visits during this holiday, but it was certainly the most incredible place we saw. Seeing all these ancient sites in place in the heart of a bustling modern day town made it so much more interesting and somehow easier to visualise how it was two thousand years ago. It was also a healthy day out - we walked about 7kms around the town!
We will certainly be going back to Extremadura as it was a most fascinating region, but the next trip post will come from - Andalucia!
A wonderful post and photos Mandy and what an interesting town Merida is. I so enjoyed seeing all the Roman ruins and mosaics. My son would just love it there. You certainly visited some amazing places.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Caroline! Hope your son gets to visit some Roman sites in the UK as there are places all over Europe and you don't necessarily have to travel to other countries. The Mediterranean is very good though!
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