Roman Ruins

We have a little bit of an obsession when it comes to Roman ruins - we LOVE them!  My husband loves the genius behind the engineering and how much work went into making their buildings perfect. 

PONT DU GARD

This aqueduct was fascinating to us and we probably spent too much time here  :)

Here are the facts: It was built around 19 B.C. -- Supplied 9 million gallons of water per day to the city of Nîme (about 100 gallons per second --  Dropped only one inch for every 350 feet -- The bridge is about 160 feet high and originally was 1,100 feet long -- 12 arches are missing, reducing the length to 790 feet -- The main arch is the largest the Romans ever built, being 80 feet --

ORANGE

Here we spent time in the Huge Roman Theater and stopped by the Roman arch before leaving town.

This Roman Theater was actually really impressive.  Apparently, it is one of the best-preserved theater still existing, and the only one in Europe with its acoustics wall still standing.  The acoustics wall was really neat, you can hear other peoples conversations who were standing by the stage from way up on top of the stands, this theater is HUGE too!

Can you see Caesar overlooking the production?  He is the stone statue in the center, above the stage.  Nice little propaganda touch.  You could remove its head so you could change the head when there was a new ruler.  Funny, huh?

A view of the outside of the theater.

Lastly, the Roman arch.  This was built in A.D. 19 to commemorate Germanicus the general for protecting the town.