Thursday 13th March 2008

A good start today, on the road at 09:20. Somewhat disconcerted by large sign as we approached the motorway from Peniscola - 'Penis Verde'. I thought at first that this was some dire Spanish disease but it turned out to be a garden centre.
It was motorway almost all the way today for four hours. Around Tarragona and Barcelona, it was very busy with much dodging of lorries of all nations. The motorway scenery however was much more interesting than yesterday and the views of the mountains were very good. We arrived at the archaeological site of Empuries just before 14:00 and had a quick lunch before we investigated the site. We had first heard about it from Mike and Marie whom we had met in the car park at an Roman site in Portugal. It was a good recommendation!
Empuries was occupied from prehistoric times but the major site covers the period from 6th century BC when the Greeks founded a city for trading purposes. Very little of this settlement is visible because it was built over in the following centuries. In the early part of the 2nd century BC the Romans established a presence and the Romanised the area. Despite this Romans and Greeks lived side by side in separate towns within a few metres of each other, keeping their own distinctive architecture.
The Greek part of the site has been largely excavated down to the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, going further back would involve destroying these remains. However only approximately one quarter of the Roman site has been excavated but this is very impressive – who knows what other treasures lay below the rest of the city.
Unfortunately, although every other language was available, they had sold out of English guidebooks, so we had to make do with a small leaflet and the good but rather scarce information boards. The museum was very well labelled in English and had some excellent finds, particularly some very fine mosaics from both the Greek and Roman settlements. There were some impressive houses in the Greek quarter but these were eclipsed by the enormous Roman villa known as Domus 1. This had a huge atrium and many rooms with mosaics. For their protection, all of the mosaics in position on the site are covered during the Winter. We were lucky in that the mosaics were being uncovered while we were there, so we were able to see some of them although many had not yet been fully cleaned.
Our campsite was only a few kilometres down the road and was virtually deserted.
Photos: The walls and gate of the Greek city; The 3rd century BC water filter system. The pipes were filled with a filter medium, unfiltered water entered at the top and filtered water came out of the hole at the bottom; The enormous Roman villa 'Domus 1'; A very fine mosaic from an unexcavated house in the Roman city.