Frontiers of the Roman Empire

This site is composed of three sections: Hadrian’s Wall, the Upper German- Raetian Limes and the Antonine Wall

Statue of Antonius Pius in Saalburg

This postcard was sent by Marcel

In Roman times, the Saalburg fort kept watch over a section of the Limes in the Taunus hills. From the beginning of the 2nd century AD for approximately the next 150 years, the Limes marked the frontier between Rome’s Empire and the Germanic tribal territories.

The fort’s garrison was made up of 600 soldiers – both infantry and cavalry. A bath house and guest house were located just outside the main gate. A village housing craftsmen, traders and tavern keepers adjoined the fort. The Roman road to Nida (today, Frankfurt-Heddernheim) was lined with graves and small shrines. As many as 2000 people may once have lived in the fort and the village. - in: http://www.saalburgmuseum.de/english/museum_en.html

Hadrian's Wall

This postcard was sent by Tiara

Hadrian's Wall is a stone and turf fortification built by the Roman Empire in northern England to stop attacks by Scottish tribes. There were three legions working on it and in 10 years it was nearly finished.

Begun in AD 122, during the rule of the emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain. The second was the Antonine Wall, the lesser known of the two.

The wall was the most heavily fortified border in the Empire. In addition to its role as a military fortification, it is thought that many of the gates through the wall would have served as customs posts to allow trade and levy taxation. - in: wikipedia

Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast

These columns, totally natural but that look man-made, inspired legends of giants striding over the sea

Giant's Causeway

This postcard was sent from Spain by Patricia

The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.

Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleocene Epoch, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillarlike structures, which are also fractured horizontally into "biscuits". In many cases the horizontal fracture has resulted in a bottom face that is convex while the upper face of the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints. The size of the columns is primarily determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleocene. - in: wikipedia

City of Bath

The city of Bath looks very beautiful with a lot of interesting buildings but I think the main attraction is really the Roman baths

Bath

This postcard was sent by Lucy

Bath is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, known for its Roman-built baths.

There are many Roman archaeological sites throughout the central area of the city. The baths themselves are about 6 metres (20 ft) below the present city street level. Around the hot springs, Roman foundations, pillar bases, and baths can still be seen, however all the stonework above the level of the baths is from more recent periods.

Bath Abbey was a Norman church built on earlier foundations. The present building dates from the early 16th century and shows a late Perpendicular style with flying buttresses and crocketed pinnacles decorating a crenellated and pierced parapet. - in: wikipedia

Roman Baths

This postcard was sent by Miguel

The Roman Baths complex is a site of historical interest in the English city of Bath. The house is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing.

The Roman Baths themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum, holding finds from Roman Bath. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century.

The first shrine at the site of the hot springs was built by Celts, and was dedicated to the goddess Sulis, whom the Romans identified with Minerva.

The name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's Roman name of Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"). The temple was constructed in 60-70 AD and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years. During the Roman occupation of Britain, and possibly on the instructions of Emperor Claudius, engineers drove oak piles to provide a stable foundation into the mud and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. In the 2nd century it was enclosed within a wooden barrel-vaulted building, and included the caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath), and frigidarium (cold bath). - in: wikipedia

Tarnowskie Góry Lead-Silver-Zinc Mine and its Underground Water Management System

This was the first site I received of the sites inscribed this year

Tarnowskie Góry Mine

This postcard was sent by Boguslaw

Located in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland, one of the main mining areas of central Europe, the site includes the entire underground mine with adits, shafts, galleries and water management system. Most of the site is situated underground while the surface mining topography features the remains of the 19th century steam water pumping station, which testifies to continuous efforts over three centuries to drain the underground extraction zone. It has made it possible to use undesirable water from the mines to supply towns and industry. Tarnowskie Góry represents a significant contribution to the global production of lead and zinc. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1539

Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines

These two mines include some amazing galleries turned into chapels, workshops, storehouses, etc. Statues and decorative elements sculpted into the rock salt can also be found in both mines

Wieliczka Salt Mine

 This postcard was sent by Miguel

The Wieliczka Salt Mine (Polish: Kopalnia soli Wieliczka), located in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland, lies within the Krakówmetropolitan area. Opened in the 13th century, the mine produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest salt mines in operation.

The mine is currently one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments (Pomniki historii), whose attractions include dozens of statues and four chapels carved out of the rock saltby the miners, as well as supplemental carvings made by contemporary artists. - in: wikipedia

Bochnia Salt Mine

This postcard was sent by Boguslaw

The beginnings of the Bochnia mine as an excavating plant date back to 1248. Being a royal facility, the mine generated a huge income.
The Bochnia Salt Mine is the greatest treasure of the Bochnia region. Thanks to the salt deposits, the town of Bochnia became one of the most important economic centres of Medieval Małopolska. With each passing century, the Salt Mine continued to leave a distinct mark on the history of the city, its urban development but also the history of business initiatives, and industrial and social development. It is here, in the Bochnia mines, that the process of innovating salt excavation methods gave rise to the introduction of then novel technical solutions.  - in: http://bochnia-mine.eu/okopalni/historia/

From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Production of Open-pan Salt

I could have visited Arc-et-Senans when I was in Besançon, but my wife is not as enthusiastic for UNESCO sites as I am and she convinced me to leave it for the next time... I don't have any card of Salins-les-Bains, maybe a good excuse to visit both :)

Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans

This postcard was sent by Christine

The Saline Royale (Royal Saltworks) is a historical building at Arc-et-Senans in the department of Doubs, eastern France. It is next to the Forest of Chaux and about 35 kilometers from Besançon. The architect was Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806), a prominent Parisian architect of the time. The work is an important example of an early Enlightenment project in which the architect based his design on a philosophy that favored arranging buildings according to a rational geometry and a hierarchical relation between the parts of the project. - in: wikipedia

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay

The Abbey of Fontenay forms a connecting link between Romanesque and Gothic architectures.

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay

The Abbey of Fontenay is a former Cistercian abbey located in the commune of Marmagne, near Montbard, in the département of Côte-d'Or in France. It was founded by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1118, and built in the Romanesque style. It is one of the oldest and most complete Cistercian abbeys in Europe, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Of the original complex comprising church, dormitory, cloister, chapter house, caldarium, refectory, dovecote and forge, all remain intact except the refectory and are well maintained. - in: wikipedia