Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Day 5, Arles, Pont du Gard

Today we hit the town of Arles, visited the Amphitheater, and market.







The Maison Carrée is an ancient building in Nîmes, southern France; it is one of the best preserved Roman temples to be found anywhere in the territory of the former Roman Empire.

We hit the market to purchase a picnic lunch










The Arena of Nîmes is a Roman amphitheatre found in the French city of Nîmes. Built around 70 AD, it was remodelled in 1863 to serve as a bullring. The Arenas of Nîmes is the site of two annual bullfights during the Feria de Nîmes, and it is also used for other public events.
The building encloses an elliptical central space 133 m long by 101 m wide. It is ringed by 34 rows of seats supported by a vaulted construction. It has a capacity of 16,300 spectators and since 1989 has a movable cover and a heating system.[1











The Pont du Gard (literally: Gard Bridge) is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge that crosses the Gardon River[4] in Vers-Pont-du-Gard near Remoulins, in the Gard département of southern France. It is part of the Nîmes aqueduct, a 50 km-long (31 mi) structure built by the Romans to carry water from a spring at Uzès to the Roman colony of Nemausus (Nîmes). Because the terrain between the two points is hilly, the aqueduct – built mostly underground – took a long, winding route that crossed the gorge of the Gardon, requiring the construction of an aqueduct bridge. Built in the 1st century AD, the Pont du Gard is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and is, with the Aqueduct of Segovia, one of the best preserved. It was added toUNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1985 because of its historical importance.









Lunch on the rocks at the Pont du Gard




 









The day was jammed packed with sightseeing. 


















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