June 2016 - Sardinia
In addition to beautiful beaches, Sardinia has some fascinating ruins. There are Roman ruins, and then there are also prehistoric ruins that are a likely candidate for the ancient civilization of Tarshish. The ruins at Nora had beautiful mosaic floors in place, something which I appreciated seeing since the mosaics had all been removed from the other ruins we'd been to (most notably Pompeii.
In addition to beautiful beaches, Sardinia has some fascinating ruins. There are Roman ruins, and then there are also prehistoric ruins that are a likely candidate for the ancient civilization of Tarshish. The ruins at Nora had beautiful mosaic floors in place, something which I appreciated seeing since the mosaics had all been removed from the other ruins we'd been to (most notably Pompeii.
|
|
|
| The ruins of Tharros | Walking through the ruined city | A column that didn't quite make it |
|
|
|
| The surviving columns of Tharros | The temple of the semicolon. They were pretty serious about grammar apparently. | |
|
|
|
| A hint of fine carving | ||
|
|
|
| Carefully fit Roman road, reminds me of Inca wall | The road through Tharros | A nice neon lizard, the likes of which are all over the island |
|
|
|
| The Spanish tower rising over the ruins | The peninsula providing protection for the bay (left side) | The prehistoric ruins of Su Nuraxe. Doesn't look like much from outside. |
|
|
|
| Climbing the main fortifications | The view of the old village from the castle walls | |
|
|
|
| They seem to have really liked circles, it's a strange contrast to our rectangle-based city plans | The courtyard with the main tower rising from it | Descending from the wall into the courtyard |
|
|
|
| The courtyard, with doors into various chambers inside the walls | Inside the main chamber | |
|
|
|
| Passage between chambers | Another chamber missing its top | |
|
|
|
| A pair of hawks flying high overhead | The Spanish tower at Nora | The Nora peninsula |
|
|
|
| A seagull chick. Awwwww! | Seagull cuddling | Ruins of the Roman coastal city of Nora |
|
|
|
| A lovely mosaiced floor | ||
|
|
|
| A pretty large city | The old Roman road heading down to the coast | The baths |
|
|
|
| A somewhat larger window than was there in Roman times I suspect | A mosaiced floor in the baths | The richy rich villa |
|
|
|
| An incredible mosaic floor | Detail on the mosaic | More mosaiced rooms |
|
|
|
| Mosaics on the coast | ||
|
|
|
| Oddly, a room in this same villa with a super amateur mosaic. The tesserae were much larger and the design much cruder. | A large mosaic on the floor of the main baths | |
|
|
|
| The theater | Quirra castle ruins | |
|
|
|
| How lovely... | The incredible view from the castle | |
|
|
|
| The San Nicola Quirra church | The coastal town of Castelsardo | |
|
|
|
| Narrow streets up in the citadel | The church | Inside the church |
|
|
|
| The church's back door | ||
|
|
|
| Part of the castle wall | Selfie on the castle wall | |
|
|
|
| Sea wall, featuring a trebuchet | Castelsardo from the castle | |