Roman engineering

Two thousand years ago when the Roman Empire extended through France, the Romans were busy building some impressive structures in the south. We took a day trip west out of Avignon to visit France's two most famous Roman engineering marvels: Pont du Gard and the amphitheatre in Nimes.

Pont du Gard is an aqueduct that crosses the Gard River. It's part of a long canal system that the Romans built to transport water from a source in Uzes to the prosperous Roman town Nimes. The challenge: how to build an pipeline to carry 5 million gallons of water daily over 30 miles without the use of machinery in construction or pumps in transporting the water. The Romans solved this problem using gravity and their favorite tool - the arch. While most of the 30 mile pipeline is underground, there was one particular crossing that the Romans couldn't avoid at the Gard River. In the span of three years, the Romans built the 1100 ft long and 160 ft high aqueduct across the river. Aside from the difficulty of hoisting all the several-ton stones into the right spot, the Romans build the aqueduct without the use of mortar which required precise cuts for all the stones to fit together.

With the aqueduct in place, the water was able to complete its 30 mile journey in just over a day and dropping just 40 vertical feet over the distance to arrive in Nimes.

It's an impressive structure if it was built it in modern times. But considering its age, the delicate balancing of all the massive stones and it's ability to weather floods, wars and tourists we were amazed by the Roman's engineering abilities to stand the test of time. There isn't much else to do at Pont du Gard other than walk around and take photos. It was a hot day so I dipped my feet into the water of the river and watched some kids peer pressure each other to jump off a cliff into the waters. Despite that being strictly forbidden, the French rangers at the site barely took notice.

We left Pont du Gard and headed for its destination in Nimes. It may have been an impressive town back in the day, but we found most of Nimes forgettable with the exception of the amphitheatre. The amphitheatre was built around the first century AD - presumably after the water had been turned on in the city. It's just over 130 meters long and about 100 meters wide and accomodated about 24,000 people. It is one of the best preserved amphitheaters in the world and just like Pont du Gard, it was in pretty good shape. In fact, they were setting up for a concert the day we toured it.

Nimes was one of the centers of gladiator combat and the typical program lasted all day. It began in the morning with fights to the death between hunters and animals. That was followed at midday by the death convicts being fed to wild animals. Finally, the elite gladiators fought in the evening. Sounds kind of gruesome. At least one part of the original show remains now that bullfights take place in the arena several times a year.

We decided to finish the day doing something a bit different and head towards the water and the Camargue National Park. It's a scenic drive through the marshlands that open into the Mediterranean Sea.
Agrandir le plan

We drove about as far south as we dared take our reliable Ford Focus and then turned around.

Before we left we spotted some fugitives from the arena in Nimes. We couldn't help but wonder if we were looking at some long descendants of proud gladiator killers enjoying the freedom their ancestors earned.

Roman Provence

Camargue

(click for rest of our photos)