[2/3] Mérida cont. Anfiteatro Romano | the Amphitheatre of Mérida was a gladiator arena opened in 8 BC, spanning ~64 by ~42 metres across & built partly from opus caementicium | concrete; the central pit was covered with a wooden floor during games watched by 20,000 people (📷1). Teatro Romano de Mérida | the Roman Theatre of Mérida is the city’s headline monument, built 16–15 BCE & still in use today for performance arts (📷2); in Roman times it also found use for town council meetings, electoral assemblies & posthumous tributes to important public figures. Nearby Casa del Anfiteatro | the Amphitheatre House includes rooms & corridors decorated with mosaics, such as this one depicting crushing of the grapes (📷3); note the juice collected in 3 vessels below the winepress. Circo romano | the Roman Circus was the city’s chariot-racing stadium, built in the 1st C. CE (📷4); one of the best preserved of its kind in the entire Roman world, it could entertain 30,000 spectators.

🇪🇸 #spain #extremadura 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco 🏛️ #roman

[1/3] We stopped overnight in Medellín, with a castle, Roman theatre & birthplace of Hernán Cortés (who toppled the Aztec Empire enabling Spanish control of Mexico, reshaping the region’s culture, population & power structures through conquest, disease & colonization). In nearby Mérida the UNESCO-listed “Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida” preserves & protects the remains of the Roman colony of Augusta Emérita, founded in 25 BCE. It’s the most complete Roman urban ensemble in Spain & within Europe ranks among an exceptional few outside of Italty. We 🅿️ across the Guadiana River near the foot of Puente Romano, one of the longest surviving Roman bridges at 783m (📷1). At its other end, the Alcazaba | citadel is a 9th C. Islamic fortress built atop Roman works to suppress the revolting local population after the city’s capture by Muslim forces (who renamed it Mérida) in the early 8th C. Most amazing, a vestibule provided access to a double staircase descending to a cistern that was refilled from river water filtered through gravel at the base of a Roman dyke (📷2). Nearby is Palacio de la China | China Palace in Plaza de España, a 1928 department store built in Sevillian style (📷3); like many modern buildings in Mérida, it incorporates Roman remains in its substructure. The Templo de Diana | Temple of Diana is a Roman temple in the ancient forum area that was later incorporated into a noble residence, 15th–16th C. Palacio de los Corbos (📷4); this act likely contributed to the temple’s preservation.

🇪🇸 #spain #extremadura 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco 🏛️ #roman

Budget campervan travel in Tasmania is totally doable 🌿🚐

Read more: https://flip.it/dnA-O1

#travel #oceania #australia #tasmania #campervan #rvtravel #wanderlust

Our first stop on re-entering Spain was in the pre-Roman era, when southern Iberia was influenced by Phoenician & Mediterranean contact, before Roman conquest. Cancho Roano near Zalamea de la Serena is named for the farm on which it was discovered in 1978. It’s a controversial Tartessian (late Bronze Age/ early Iron Age civilization with strong Phoenician influence) structure founded in the 6th C. BCE. Some think it was a palace/ elite residence, others a sanctuary; it lacks the domestic features of a typical settlement. The site was abandoned before 370 BCE after being intentionally sealed & burned—possibly in an act of ritualistic decommissioning.

The complex is surrounded by a moat with an entrance terrace between two towers facing the rising sun; the threshold is a decorated stela (ordinarily placed vertically) & the red clay courtyard includes a 5m deep well (📷1). The building was originally entered through a central hall, beneath which are remains of an even earlier structure (📷2). A round altar on the floor formed from clay & lime features a triangular element that kept a ceramic bowl, presumed to contain/ collect a sacred liquid (📷3). The central bulding is surrounded by a corridor & outer enclosure divided into 24 small rooms (📷4); both had stone foundations, clay floors, adobe brick walls with lime plaster & wooden roofs.

🇪🇸 #spain #extremadura 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

Forte de Santa Luzia at Elvas is part of the UNESCO listing for “Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications”. The site is one of the best-preserved examples of early modern military architecture in Europe, demonstrating the 17th C. bastioned fortifications developed as a response to artillery. For its part, this fort—one of two near the fortified city—played a border defense role, layed out on a hill in a polygonal star plan with bastions, dry moat & thick ramparts. Such geometry eliminated blind spots & enabled crossfire; a guarita | sentry box would be located at intervals, often on prominent wall angles to shelter sentinel soldiers (📷1). During the Portuguese Restoration War (1640–68) in which Portugal fought to restore independence from Spain, soldiers stationed here (📷2) saw repeated action, especially in the 1659 campaign—a Spanish offensive culminating in the Battle of the Lines of Elvas. The thick ramparts, engineered to absorb & deflect artillery fire, include cannon positions to return fire (📷3); this is a 7.5cm calibre English campaign piece with wooden gun carriage. Within Casa do Governador | the governor’s house is an unusual vertical “staircase” affording access to an observation terrace (📷4).

After our visit we crossed the border into Spain. 👋 Até à próxima, Portugal!

🇵🇹 #portugal 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco

The compact village of Monsaraz features whitewashed buildings & cobbled lanes in a layout little changed since medieval times (📷1). Castelo de Monsaraz, a 13th C. hilltop fortress, now contains a bullring built by villagers in 1830 using stones harvested from the semi-ruined parade ground & walls (📷2). Albufeira do Alqueva | Alqueva Reservoir, one of Europe’s largest artificial lakes, is seen from various vantage points, with views over the Alentejo plains & into Spain (📷3). From the walls we also looked over large-scale olive groves, “montado” (a traditional agroforestry system combining cork or holm oaks with grazing land) & pocket-sized vineyards (📷4).

🇵🇹 #portugal 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

One of Europe’s densest megalithic landscapes lies on the outskirts of Évora. We selected a few of the primary sites, beginning with Menhir dos Almendres, a 4m tall isolated standing stone near the village of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (📷1). Further along the same dirt road—we had to abandon the van & walk—is Cromeleque dos Almendres, a stone circle constructed ~7,500 years ago & comprising 100+ menhirs, making it the largest monument of its kind in Iberia (📷2). From the adjacent village to the south we walked to Anta Grande do Zambujeiro, one of the largest dolmen (burial monuments) in the world, exemplifying Neolithic funerary architecture (📷3); it’s ~5,500 years old—built at the same time as the pyramids in Egypt & Stonehenge in England. During our time travels in the local landscape we had several meetings with the endemic Berberomeloe castuo | Portuguese red-striped oil beetle (📷4); the body resembling a black menhir, its defense mechanism is to excrete an oily haemolymph containing the toxin cantharidin, which causes severe blistering to human skin.

Tip: Call in first at Centro Interpretativo dos Almendres for info & access advice.

🇵🇹 #portugal 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

One doesn’t visit Évora’s historic centre to see extensive well-preserved Roman ruins; rather, the city’s UNESCO listing reflects continuous occupation since the Roman era, when it was known as Liberalitas Julia. Distinct Roman remains are few, although there is more legacy embedded in the fabric of the medieval town. Templo Romano de Évora | the Roman Temple is the primary monument of Roman Évora, built in the early 1st C. CE with granite columns featuring Corinthian capitals (📷1); it’s one of the best-preserved Roman temples in Iberia & was likely dedicated to the cult of the Emperor. Porta de Dona Isabel is a remnant access point to the Roman city (📷2); surviving sections of wall have been incorporated into later fortifications, but it still defines the original Roman urban perimeter. Termas Romanas | the Roman baths c. early 1st C. CE are excavated beneath Câmara Municipal De Évora | the city hall (📷3); this rounded structure is the laconicum, a central space used for sweating in hot, dry air. Not Roman, but nevertheless a curiosity, Igreja de S. Francisco | St Francis’ Church contains the early 17th C. Capela dos Ossos | Chapel of Bones, with 3 naves formed from arrangements of 🦴💀 human bones sourced from local burial grounds (📷4) in a move predating modern concepts of informed consent & planning permission!

🇵🇹 #portugal 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco 🏛️ #roman

After inching our way through Lisbon’s rush-hour traffic we made camp south of the city. This experience, combined with the stress of navigating Sintra, only served to reaffirm our decision to skip revisiting Lisbon’s attractions. We thus arrived at Praia De Santo Antóniois, one of the beaches along Costa da Caparica, with a promenade, fisherpeople (📷1) & surf school (📷2). Later we attempted to visit Praia da Figueirinha near Setúbal on a recommendation, but found the access road closed. We thus bid farewell to the Atlantic & turned inland to begin our return journey (we’re leaving southern Alentejo & the Algarve for another time).

🇵🇹 #portugal 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife