Today's program included a visit to Ostkastell Welzheim (eastern fort), an archaeological find from Roman times. As it turns out I lived a good chunk of my life not far from the famous Limes, the second-longest man-made structure on Earth, ... and never visited. Today we fixed that.
The Ostkastell is a smaller site than the Westkastell. However, whatever is left of the Westkastell is now buried under the town of Welzheim. Even the finds at Ostkastell is not really that exciting at first. Here's the bath house:
However, various panels with pictures and explanations, as well as partially reconstructed structures like the main gate below bring history to life.
On the outside of the fort wall, there's a reconstructed section of the moat as well.
Drinking water for the fort was initially provided by way of four wells. Later on they fell into disuse and junk and garbage was thrown into the well shaft. Very cool for us living 1700 years later, since garbage is very useful to learn about daily life in ancient civilizations. Here's a reconstruction of one of the wells.
There's a nice relief that shows the locations of east and west forts in relation to each other as well as the Limes in the area.
An interesting, but rather cold, way to spend some time in the morning. During the summer months the city is staffing the site with volunteers. The local museum with its extensive collection of Roman artifacts would also be open. We continued on to see if we can find other remains of the Limes.
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