Roman Forts - Saalburg

When the Roman Empire ruled forts were built all around the boarders. The Rhine and Danube Rivers were natural boundaries which required less monitoring, but the area between the rivers was known as the Limes and was marked with many forts. Although travel was open across the boundary soldiers monitored traffic much the same as a boarder crossing is monitored today.

Remains of many of the forts still exist today and they all are constructed using the same basic model with similar features. The Saalburg Fort in Bad Homburg, Germany has been rebuilt and is open to visitors.

Four nearly identical gates are located on the sides of the Fort.

Double ditches surrounded the fort for defensive purposes. Although they don't look difficult to penetrate, in former times they were constantly maintained by soldiers. The walls of the ditches were nearly vertical and they were filled with spiky logs and water. The trees surrounding the fort were cleared to allow soldiers to spot people approaching the fort.

Several wells were built at the fort.

The men slept in long barracks buildings.

Foot baths were created for washing feet and the water flowed in ditches.

The forts had center courtyards with a well in at least one corner.

Ceremonies such as retirements, assemblies and announcements took place in the main building of the fort.

Officers had nice living quarters complete with wall frescoes.

Outside the forts a cities sprang up. The villages supported the forts with hotels and shops. This is the remains of a thermal bath outside the fort boundary.

Roman Fort by Stephen Johnson explains forts and fort life in much more detail. After visiting, we browsed the book to further explain the fort.

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German Birds

There are many birds in our area of Germany. This week we went on several nature walks to look for them. These photos were taken on the trails that wind through the farm fields and wooded areas behind our village.

Did you see two birds in the top left photo? These are European Robins. They look quite different than American Robins because they are actually classified in different families. The European Robin is part of the Flycatcher family while the American Robin is a Thrush.

I think this bird is called a Yellowhammer. The same bird is also in the bottom right photo.

 This is a large wading bird. We have seen them frequently in the spring. I think it is a Great Egret.

Storks can be spotted in the area. (This one was spotted at a rest area on the Autobahn.)

Great Tits are everywhere. We see them in our yard every time we go outside. They are so cute with their blue backs, yellow breasts and black neck ties.

If you would like to learn more this is a nice website to help identify the birds of Europe.