Once you park your car, or get off the tour bus at the city of Side, this is the best place to start your visit - at Side's Historical Museum - one of my very favorites.
The Archaeological Museum of Side - courtyard.
This is a wonderful site - unlike any museum I've ever visited... relaxing, beautiful and aesthetic. Trees, grass and benches provide relief from the hot Mediterranean sun. You also get a great view to the southwest from the museum...
...toward Antalya. Many of the mountains in the low-lying mountain range (darker blue) form the backdrop for Aspendos, a Roman city I found to be rather intriguing. Here's my page on that wonderful city.
Museum Courtyard
Above, an odd assortment of carved stones in the courtyard. The museum is located in an old Roman Bath building which overlooks the beach. It's just a short walk to the Roman Amphitheater and city gate, Vespasianos Aniti.
https://www.turkeycentral.com/gallery/image/8602-entrance-side-museum/
Entrance to the Side Museum. (above) Note the large buttress on the left side made of concrete blocks which was once a wall for the Roman baths.
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Large concrete blocks. (After reading the sign: I'm hardly worried about things collapsing! They're not going to crumble! They're made of Roman concrete.)Roman engineering was extremely advanced, and concrete was one of their amazing specialties.
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It enabled them to build fascinating structures around the Roman world that are still standing today: the Colosseum, baths, aqueducts, theaters, race tracks, walls and even the Pantheon. Let's visit the Pantheon in Rome for a few minutes.
Pantheon:
The Pantheon in Rome is a massive concrete building capped by an impressive 142-foot-high concrete dome—the largest in the ancient world.
Made entirely out of concrete, without the reinforcing support of structural steel, no modern engineer would dare attempt such a feat, says David Moore, author of The Roman Pantheon: The Triumph of Concrete. “Modern codes of engineering practice would not permit such mischief.”
And yet for nearly 2,000 years the Pantheon has withstood weather, earthquakes, and attacks from Barbarian invaders.
"...most of the bricks were produced and placed in the Pantheon in 123 A.D., a date that the manufacturer stamped on his bricks. This was discovered in 1892 by the French archaeologist, George Chedanne. It appears the construction of the rotunda walls took a period of 4 to 5 years to "mature" - pozzolan concrete needed ample time to develop strength."
http://www.romanconcrete.com/docs/chapt01/chapt01.html
I've spent a lot of time looking at Roman concrete in various locations across Europe and Turkey, and find the material quite amazing - even captivating.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome)
"History contains many references to ancient concrete, including in the writings of the famous Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, who lived in the 1st century A.D. and died in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Pliny wrote that the best maritime concrete was made from volcanic ash found in regions around the Gulf of Naples, especially from near the modern-day town of Pozzuoli. Its virtues became so well-known that ash with similar mineral characteristics–no matter where it was found in the world–has been dubbed pozzolan.
Pantheon
An international team of researchers was able to discover the “secret” to Roman cement’s durability and longevity by analyzing the mineral components of the cement taken from the Pozzuoli Bay breakwater at special laboratories. The Roman engineer Marcus Vitruvius recorded how to make concrete in 30 BCE.
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Amphitheater at Side - made of large stones and cement
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The back side of the amphitheater at SideThe special formula of Roman concrete called for a concoction of volcanic ash, lime, and seawater, mixed together with volcanic rocks and spread into wooden molds that were then immersed in sea water. This is where they got the volcanic ash! Researchers have studied drilled core samples of the ground structure at Pozzuoli Bay near Naples, Italy to obtain this volcanic ash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbvvlFHCNn4
Why was Roman Concrete Forgotten during the Middle Ages?
The seawater triggers a chemical reaction, through which water molecules hydrated the lime and react with the ash to connect everything together. The resulting bond:
calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (Ca-Al-Si-H)
is exceptionally strong. When analyzed, they found that the seawater had dissolved and solidified components of the volcanic ash. For example: The harbor located in Caesarea, shown below under construction, is made of this concrete.
https://www.history.com/news/the-secrets-of-ancient-roman-concrete
Our inferior modern concrete (usually called "Portland cement") - is used in everything from roads to buildings to bridges and can break down in as few as 50 years.
"The Roman period's main harbour of Ancient Corinth Discovered"(2:35 min.)
In conclusion, the Romans invented an advanced process for creating "moles" or underwater walls using poured concrete right into sea water where it hardens.
http://www.soniahalliday.com/category-view3.php?pri=TR111-12-07.jpg
Another example: The Roman mole at Assos, Turkey - site from which Paul sailed on his Third Missionary Journey.In conclusion, the Romans invented an advanced process for creating "moles" or underwater walls using poured concrete right into sea water where it hardens.
Above, the harbor of Pozzuoli in center of picture is located south of Naples. Notice the abundance of craters, which indicate volcanic activity - in fact, there is a huge amount of seismic activity in the Naples area, especially from nearby Mount Vesuvius.
NOTE: I've been to the village of Pozzuoli, and walked down into a depression with hot, stinking, sulfur pots. "Fooey!" Paul came ashore here on his trip to Rome after being ship-wrecked on Malta.
In contrast, the Greeks didn't use concrete, but fit their stones together very precisely - something I'll show you in pictures from walls at Assos and Didymus, ruins also in western Turkey.
We'll leave my obsession with concrete now, and get back to the museum at Side...
Many fine marble works of antiquity recovered locally from the Side city are now located inside the Roman Bath building.
The "Sarcophagus Room."
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A lion's head from the Sarcophagus above
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Fragments found on-site. |
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Here's that same pillar.
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Above, the scene on the left side shows one warrior who was able to defeat and kill another, most likely in a coliseum similar to the one in Rome.
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https://www.turkeycentral.com/gallery/image/8613-reliefs-side-museum/
Various carved stones
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I love articulate stonework from antiquity, and this museum certainly has some wonderful pieces.
This appears to be a child's sarcophagus with a lid. Perhaps the child was from a rich family who could afford such a masterpiece.
The carving above shows some act of servitude. (It reminds me of the shoe-shiners I used to see in Chicago's O'Hare airport when I was on business trips!)
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This piece looks like part of a freeze from a building. The figure on the left seems to represent half of the ancient Greek theme of Tragedy (and Comedy) in theater. The one on the right is indifferent.
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Click here to access the Table of Contents
The detailed history on Roman concrete is fascinating. I had often heard of it but not in the details you describe and the references you provide. Thank you !!
ReplyDeleteDear FeastNow: Nice to hear from you! This was one study that I wasn't sure about. Some topics drive me crazy, and I have to write about them... like the recent one about Friedrich Barbarossa traveling near Alahan.
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