Our last trip out before leaving St Remy was to the Pont du Gard. This is a Roman aqueduct built in AD 60 to carry water 30 miles from source near Uzes to the city of Nemausus, present-day Nimes. To do so it was necessary to cross the river Gardon with this spectacular aqueduct.
To get an idea of scale, the next photo is taken from the road bridge that runs alongside the lower tier. The road bridge was added in the 17th century but is not now used for vehicles apart from those of the tourist office that operates the site.
The tourist centre runs cafés, souvenir shops and exhibition
hall in a complex near the large car park (9
euros). When we visited 35 years ago there was nothing here and you
parked where you could for free. It was so quiet that we sat by the river for a
long time and watched two kingfishers fishing in the river. Now both the
aqueduct and the river are popular destinations for tourists, school parties,
bus trips and canoeists. The view from the road bridge shows the picturesque
river, with canoes.
Walking to the aqueduct we passed some attractive provencal
buildings that seem to blend in with the landscape, for example.
And a final look at this awe-inspiring structure, 160 feet high, 900 feet long, estimated weight 50.400 tons, and taking around 15 years to complete. It was constructed largely without using mortar, with some of the blocks weighing 6 tons.
No comments:
Post a Comment