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It's pretty cool how the hexagonal harbour has survived. It's a lake now, Lago Traiano, about 2km inland.
by Luc 7y ago
It's pretty cool how the hexagonal harbour has survived. It's a lake now, Lago Traiano, about 2km inland.
- koboll 7y agoSimilar to the port of Carthage: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Punic+Port/@36.8447107,10.3235603,17z https://www.google.com/maps/place/Punic+Port/@36.8447107,10....
- tomglynch 7y agoVery interesting! I wonder where all the extra land came from and why?
- madengr 7y agoWhy is it all land now? Sea level change, or manually filled to extend the coast?
- ncmncm 7y agoProbably the latter, although uplift happens, sometimes. And subsidence. The coast of Washington state rises over the course of (on average, 10ky window) 300 years, and suddenly drops 3-6 feet when the 9+ earthquake hits. The last one was 320 years ago. Most of the recent-ish ones were spaced closer to 500 years, but that is not predictive.
- Luc 7y agoNeither, just silting up. The Tiber has been filling in that area with sediments for thousands of years. The harbour was just a tiny dent in that natural process. Here's a poster with some progress drawings over the millennia: https://www.academia.edu/29407769/The_effect_of_the_Tiber_delta_development_in_the_Central_Tyrrhenian_Sea https://www.academia.edu/29407769/The_effect_of_the_Tiber_de...
- mekane8 7y agoDarn, I would like to see that poster, but I don't want to give Academia.edu (whatever that is) a copy of all my Google accounts!
- Someone 7y ago”by the middle of the 5th century AD, the outer harbour basin was silting up” So, the Tiber deposited silt in front of the port. Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portus, that isn’t surprising. It says: ”Claudius constructed the first harbour on the Portus site, 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Ostia, enclosing an area of 69 hectares (170 acres), with two long curving moles projecting into the sea, and an artificial island, bearing a lighthouse, in the centre of the space between them.” Those constructs must have decreased water flow, allowing (more) silt to settle.
- nerdponx 7y agoThat must have looked very impressive at the time (and must have been quite an engineering task). Makes me think of something out of a fantasy novel.
- pierlu 7y agoFor interested folks, there is an experimental route bike from the center of Rome (i.e. the Vatican) to the sea and the ancient port of Fiumicino. Here is the article (in italian) you can translate via google: https://www.viagginbici.com/cicloturismo/cicloturismo-nel-lazio/da-roma-al-mare-in-bicicletta/ https://www.viagginbici.com/cicloturismo/cicloturismo-nel-la...