A tour of the Roman legionary camp at Lambaesis, Algeria. Find out more about my tours here: toldinstone.co... Check out my other channels, @toldinstone and @toldinstonefootnotes
A large portion of it had been robbed away for building material by the locals before the French arrived. Most of what remained were blocks too large to be moved without more than a pry bar and a cart.
You don't need any math for circular arches like these, just a tiny bit of geometry! You decide how wide you want the opening to be, and then you can lay out the template for your arch with a stick and some string.
Not really, a circle is very easy to construct perfectly on the ground, all you need are two spikes and a length of rope. So you lay out your wood on the ground, draw your semi-circle, cut the wood into the shape, raise it vertically in the correct position and plonk your voussoirs (possibly having shaped them perfectly on the ground) in position. The timber centring for an arch and its construction require very little knowledge of maths really, but you do need to know how to draw a circle, I reckon Fred Flintstone knew how to draw a circle.
@@Rob741741 I am architect and yes, builder of my home thanks ...... you really don't need much in the way of maths to build arches. Try not to be rude mate.
@@Rob741741 why would I lie? ..... there has to be some trust at some level to have a conversation - why do you come here itching for an argument? its baffling the anger pent up in some idiots. I'm also a university lecturer and one recent interest of mine is Roman town planning ... which is why I watched the video in the first place.
In term of grain production, Roman North Africa was the proverbial bread-basket of the empire. It was also one of the epicenters for the production of that most famous of all (smelly) Roman condiments, garum, as well as olive oil, which was a central component of the former.
C’était aussi le cas durant l’a période du royaume d Alger C’est pour ça que la France lancer une conquête pour détruire la régence et voler le tresors du Dey L’Algérie 🇩🇿 ancienne était plus riche que la France
Its astonishing how Roman remains have managed to endure not only the ravages of time but also the caprices of the civilisations that followed them. It suggests to me Rome's shadow was spared by God to remind we poorer inheritors of their legacy how magnificent we can be. Alas Sic transit gloria mundi
Rome itself was already a shadow of the greatness that Greek culture had achieved before it. Rome was the king of materiality, but they were already in the shadows of an even greater artistic and spiritual civilization. This is nothing against Rome, for Rome is truly the Greatest of all Ancients. It makes your imagination jump from stone to stone, thinking about what they had achieved so many years ago. I believe in reincarnation, so I like to imagine what I might have been doing back then. I wonder what kind of personalities people had, what kind of jokes they played on each other
@@inveterateforeigner2780 I have a foot long knife wound in my abdomen right now as it goes. They stitched me back together but its still sore. Thanks for asking.
@@R08TamIt sounds a lot better in bigger cities, at larger mosques, where people have to try out and only those with nice voices are allowed to use the speaker systems that use decent quality components, that they frequently practice to use. In the rural areas where the local iman with a scratchy voice, using a patched together 120 decibel sound system at max volume, with a microphone that’s held together with duct tape…a beautiful sound it sure ain’t!
Imagine having to listen to that shite 5 times a day. The most insecure god of all time that has to make it's hostages pray to him 5 times a day. You think he would get sick of it after the first day.
Your scene walking into the amphitheatre really did project the impressive scale of the place. Thanks for the video tour of a city I learned about way back in my 70s college days.
It is truly astonishing! Something similar to this but not as amazingly saved is the castle/fortress in my hometown of Elbasan in Albania. Even from above, you can see the square shape of the fort and the main parallel road that croses through the building, that road being Via Egnatia, the one to Constantinople. Astonishingly, the roman fort is completely underground, and the one above is an ottoman one, but a big part of the castle has been dug up for a restorant where you can find the full wall +10meters. From some ancient base to roman to Byzantine, then to Ottoman...
Que de souvenirs, je me rappelle fort bien de m'être fait alpaguer à cet endroit par une bande de barbus armés de gourdins à la recherche d'un jeune couple (à propos, on voit bien la prison sur la colline, cela fait aussi partie du charme de ce site) ! Comme quoi on peut très bien marier les visites archéologiques et les festivités locales !
I can't say " THANK YOU " enough for your excellent tours !! You consistently show Roman ruins that I've never heard of ,or just have seen a photo of part of some. Thanks again!!!😊
Thank you, Dr. Ryan, for all your superb videos! Your channels are doing a great job at sponsoring a more rigorous understanding of Mediterranean antiquity among the general public. Thank you for being such an excellent example of a public historian :)
Thank you so much for using you encyclopedic knowledge in explaining what “we” are seeing in your tour. Thanks for the tour, it’s amazing what is left when you know what you are looking at. Wonderful video…thanks!
Sad the Roman ruins were mined for stone. Reminds me of Cusco, Peru where all the significant Spanish colonial-era buildings were built on the Inca temple foundations. Glad there are so many excellent Inca ruins that were too far to reuse.
ROMA il più grandioso e glorioso Impero della storia; Roma ha conquistato, dominato, costruito e CIVILIZZATO; la grandezza, la potenza, la magnificenza e la GLORIA DI ROMA EST AETERNA, ROMA INVICTA ET LUX MUNDI 💪🦅
Best preserved Roman fort has, IMO, got to be at Adjara, Georgia. It is close to the Turkish border on the Black Sea. It is basically totally intact and covers 47,000sq metres. Built in 1st Century AD. It was subsequently used by the Byzantines and then the Ottomans.
They tortured and killed millions of Algerians in the most horrific ways imaginable.. they spent 130 years ethnically cleansing us. But you're shocked that they ruined some stones?!!
There was an aqueduct that brought water down from the hills. I'm not aware of any all-encompassing list, but you could check out the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.
Thanks for the video. I assume when you say best preserved legionary fort, you are specifically referring to those only housing "legions" and not smaller units? There are obviously better preserved Roman forts, but they are also smaller.
How different is Roman era architecture in North Africa from later Moorish architecture? I was reading about the mosque (now church) of Cristo de la Luz in Toldeo, and as a layman, the exterior doesn't look totally removed from Roman architecture (save for the windows.)
Thanks for the follow along vid. Who was the guy boasting loud he wasn't going to advertise tours into N. Africa anymore? Kinda rude to do that while people are recording things of their learning viewing on a tour.
I normally like the Adhan but that sounds awful like a they were butchering sheep or something. @6:28 "Ah... The French" TBF, the stone had probably been looted for hundreds of years prior as well.
All of Algeria is full of ancient monuments that do not exist in any other country. The French occupation destroyed Algerian cities, especially the city of Algiers, the largest city in North Africa. During the Ottoman era, the French destroyed the entire city of Algeria, including its palaces, mosques, walls, and castles, and rebuilt them in the French style. The French also destroyed all of the Algerian manuscripts, until Algeria became without manuscripts or archives.
@nihilmiror6312 Nah bro , they be playing that recording of spooky sounds. People play that at Halloween time . 🎃 Some fool be punking the tourists ! 😄
I've been to loads of archaeological sites all over the world where I was the only one there. People flock to Pompeii, Ankgor Wat, the pyriamids of Giza and skip about everything else!
50 acres, 5000 soldiers. I think that must have been fairly close quarters. The Internet says an acre is slightly smaller than a.US football field. Imagine 100 Roman soldiers and their camp followers all living and working on a football field. Not enough room to swing a cat.
Rough times for the Roman Empire, the Third Augustan is down to a single stork to defend all of North Africa
It is the opposite, just one legion + auxiliaria has been enough for centuries.
Not just any old stork. That is... STORKUS MAXIMUS
He's waiting to wage war on the Pygmies.
Maybe the stork is as tough as a legion.....he best get patrolling
@@user-io9ie5cs8j or maybe he is part of a long tradition of guardian storks of the fort...
That site has been holding together for centuries until it was quarried away by the French, incredible.
Probably not.
A large portion of it had been robbed away for building material by the locals before the French arrived. Most of what remained were blocks too large to be moved without more than a pry bar and a cart.
And ignored by modern-day Algerians left to rot in a backwards country.
Seriously, THANKS for this immersive history tour, this is what TH-cam was made for.
This, and cat videos!
Not true
It will never cease to amaze me that the Romans were able to build these perfectly symmetrical arched door ways. They knew their math!
You don't need any math for circular arches like these, just a tiny bit of geometry! You decide how wide you want the opening to be, and then you can lay out the template for your arch with a stick and some string.
Not really, a circle is very easy to construct perfectly on the ground, all you need are two spikes and a length of rope. So you lay out your wood on the ground, draw your semi-circle, cut the wood into the shape, raise it vertically in the correct position and plonk your voussoirs (possibly having shaped them perfectly on the ground) in position. The timber centring for an arch and its construction require very little knowledge of maths really, but you do need to know how to draw a circle, I reckon Fred Flintstone knew how to draw a circle.
@@MrVorpalswordshut Up
@@Rob741741 I am architect and yes, builder of my home thanks ...... you really don't need much in the way of maths to build arches. Try not to be rude mate.
@@Rob741741 why would I lie? ..... there has to be some trust at some level to have a conversation - why do you come here itching for an argument? its baffling the anger pent up in some idiots. I'm also a university lecturer and one recent interest of mine is Roman town planning ... which is why I watched the video in the first place.
I would never be able to see these Roman ruins, without you. Thank you.
In term of grain production, Roman North Africa was the proverbial bread-basket of the empire. It was also one of the epicenters for the production of that most famous of all (smelly) Roman condiments, garum, as well as olive oil, which was a central component of the former.
C’était aussi le cas durant l’a période du royaume d Alger
C’est pour ça que la France lancer une conquête pour détruire la régence et voler le tresors du Dey
L’Algérie 🇩🇿 ancienne était plus riche que la France
Its astonishing how Roman remains have managed to endure not only the ravages of time but also the caprices of the civilisations that followed them. It suggests to me Rome's shadow was spared by God to remind we poorer inheritors of their legacy how magnificent we can be.
Alas
Sic transit gloria mundi
Rome itself was already a shadow of the greatness that Greek culture had achieved before it.
Rome was the king of materiality, but they were already in the shadows of an even greater artistic and spiritual civilization.
This is nothing against Rome, for Rome is truly the Greatest of all Ancients. It makes your imagination jump from stone to stone, thinking about what they had achieved so many years ago.
I believe in reincarnation, so I like to imagine what I might have been doing back then. I wonder what kind of personalities people had, what kind of jokes they played on each other
Which God, Apollo, Jupiter, Diana, Neptune?
@@MrVorpalsword have you ever had a fight?
heh😏
@@inveterateforeigner2780 I have a foot long knife wound in my abdomen right now as it goes. They stitched me back together but its still sore. Thanks for asking.
thank you for showing me something I would love to see, but never will.
Really amazing. The weather has helped to preserve these amazing vestiges of the past.
The call to prayer gave the video an eery feeling
I honestly found it distracting. It was hard to take it what Dr. Ryan was saying.
Sounded like cows mooing
@@R08TamIt sounds a lot better in bigger cities, at larger mosques, where people have to try out and only those with nice voices are allowed to use the speaker systems that use decent quality components, that they frequently practice to use. In the rural areas where the local iman with a scratchy voice, using a patched together 120 decibel sound system at max volume, with a microphone that’s held together with duct tape…a beautiful sound it sure ain’t!
Imagine having to listen to that shite 5 times a day. The most insecure god of all time that has to make it's hostages pray to him 5 times a day. You think he would get sick of it after the first day.
Your scene walking into the amphitheatre really did project the impressive scale of the place. Thanks for the video tour of a city I learned about way back in my 70s college days.
It is truly astonishing!
Something similar to this but not as amazingly saved is the castle/fortress in my hometown of Elbasan in Albania. Even from above, you can see the square shape of the fort and the main parallel road that croses through the building, that road being Via Egnatia, the one to Constantinople. Astonishingly, the roman fort is completely underground, and the one above is an ottoman one, but a big part of the castle has been dug up for a restorant where you can find the full wall +10meters. From some ancient base to roman to Byzantine, then to Ottoman...
Feel privileged to be fed this quality content so early in the channels life , see you at a million well deserved subs
This is not his main channel
Que de souvenirs, je me rappelle fort bien de m'être fait alpaguer à cet endroit par une bande de barbus armés de gourdins à la recherche d'un jeune couple (à propos, on voit bien la prison sur la colline, cela fait aussi partie du charme de ce site) ! Comme quoi on peut très bien marier les visites archéologiques et les festivités locales !
I can't say " THANK YOU " enough for your excellent tours !! You consistently show Roman ruins that I've never heard of ,or just have seen a photo of part of some. Thanks again!!!😊
A marvelous sight of the site to behold, Dr. Ryan.
It is breathtaking to imagine simply laying a hand on a stone that the ancients cut and built with.
Loving the videography on this … nicely-paced!
Thank you, Dr. Ryan, for all your superb videos! Your channels are doing a great job at sponsoring a more rigorous understanding of Mediterranean antiquity among the general public. Thank you for being such an excellent example of a public historian :)
Damn French destroyed the historic remains, that is just unbelievable that they did that. Thanks for the video
they are the ones who reconstructed it tho , so i guess they sort of repented
they destroyed many of historic buildings in algeria especially islamic ones to try to erase algerian culture and identity
The crimes of France were never properly investigated
@@0rlanixyea muslims never do anything like that lol 🙄
French killed 1 milion people in Algeria in 50s ,so much more then just historic ruins
Wow! That must've been gorgeous back in it's day.
I love these on site videos. Really cool.
Behold my works, ye mighty, and despair... nothing beside remains.
I am Ozymandias, King of Kings
Again, I love the format of your productions. Many thanks !
What a beautiful land, to the touch.
Absolutely stunning
I wish you had zoomed in on the carving on the key stone 😢
Thank you though for even traveling there and filming these locations in the 1st place
Thank you for this video.Very well done.
Where I live is basically a giant fort with a town in the middle. Funny how some things never change.
Thank you so much for using you encyclopedic knowledge in explaining what “we” are seeing in your tour. Thanks for the tour, it’s amazing what is left when you know what you are looking at. Wonderful video…thanks!
That opening shot is beautiful!
It’s sad they ruined these ruins.
Until a few years after WW2, quarrying for stone was progressively destroying part of Hadrian's Wall.
LOL!
The Romans had probably used old Carthaginian ruins for their materials and someone else will use the French ruins for something else.
French ruin everythin, even ruins
Would be so cool to see the theatre restored.
Thank you for your presentation .
Beautiful work the stonework
What a beautiful scenery
Remnants they may be but the center building is still hugely impressive!
Amazingly evocative ruins. Thanks.
It remains amazing that you still can find traces of Ancient Rome.
So cool
I'm so disappointed that the French occupiers had no concept of history and wrecked so much that survived nearly two millennia.
Je suis Algérien 🇩🇿 le français est un être vide et jaloux
C’est pour cette raison que mon grand père du FLN les a combattu qui a mourir
Great ! Rafael from Gibraltar 🇬🇮 ❤
How times have changed... such a great civilisation
Thank you!
If at some future time you discover some of the local current town buildings that re-use the material from the fort, do let us know.
This is my beautiful city, where I currently live, the city built by Emperor Titus. It is rich in history and events and has a very beautiful nature.
Awesome!
What a great channel! Thank you!
Wonderful!
This was very interesting. Thank you.
You should take a look at Portchester Castle in England, it’s not far from Portsmouth.
Super!
Thank your a great video
Really fascinating, tha k you!
Amazing
It's very sad that the French did not have more respect for this ancient monument.
Wasn't it the French who also blew off part of the Sphinx & stored ammunition in the Parthenon? Too bad they got around.
Thats some quality content
nice video, thank you
nice work
Rome leaves and bingo chaos remains. . .such is life
Love your shit told in stone dude
Dry hot dusty, keep em coming!
Deeply appreciated!
the two big building in the back are the prison built by the frenchs which are still used to this day under the same name lambaes
Really good graphics
If you have a vr set, these are great to watch on a giant screen
The best preserved fort is in Georgia, on the Black Sea coast.
R
Sad the Roman ruins were mined for stone. Reminds me of Cusco, Peru where all the significant Spanish colonial-era buildings were built on the Inca temple foundations. Glad there are so many excellent Inca ruins that were too far to reuse.
That is an impressive building. Is it a reconstruction from rubble? If not, has that been standing for close to 2,000 years?
There was some light restoration in the early 20th century, but the rest has been standing since the reign of Hadrian.
ROMA il più grandioso e glorioso Impero della storia; Roma ha conquistato, dominato, costruito e CIVILIZZATO; la grandezza, la potenza, la magnificenza e la GLORIA DI ROMA EST AETERNA, ROMA INVICTA ET LUX MUNDI 💪🦅
Best preserved Roman fort has, IMO, got to be at Adjara, Georgia. It is close to the Turkish border on the Black Sea. It is basically totally intact and covers 47,000sq metres. Built in 1st Century AD. It was subsequently used by the Byzantines and then the Ottomans.
Awesome 👏
Nice masonry.
look it up on a sattelite image, this place is massive & impressive
How could the French do such a thing!?
Everybody has been doing it . . .
They tortured and killed millions of Algerians in the most horrific ways imaginable.. they spent 130 years ethnically cleansing us. But you're shocked that they ruined some stones?!!
@@SandeshBartlett-m7c the moslems destroyed much of it beforehand
The French dismembered most of north Africa's medina in addition to sites like this. It's such a shame...
@@1994CPK the french done it
This would look great 👌 in computer images.
Lovely stuff .... can you afford a drone?
How was that camp supplied with water? Is there an all encompassing catalogue of such remnants of the Roman empire?
There was an aqueduct that brought water down from the hills. I'm not aware of any all-encompassing list, but you could check out the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.
Thanks for the video. I assume when you say best preserved legionary fort, you are specifically referring to those only housing "legions" and not smaller units? There are obviously better preserved Roman forts, but they are also smaller.
Cool video. But where were the bathrooms?
Could you do a video about Dura
Europos?
Unfortunately it's location remains a warzone
Such amazing ruins :)
The four square bases inside the groma, which funtion did they have?
I love this but you gotta get a op shield for the camera mic please
Am I the only one who would love to see a restoration of these ancient roman buildings? For example, today's Rome looks like shit.
Oh to be a stork nesting on a roman ruin....
Gauls got some petty revenge there…
French, not gauls. A mixture of franks, Visighots, Burgundians, Gallo-Romans.
@@marcoparente7352 Begone, pedant
@@mikewifak it looks you have not got this is a channel for the ones you would call pedant 😂
What battle are you talking about ? Or are you referring to the french conquest/colonization .
@@deadmoney5580 french conquest colonization. I hope he was joking confusing gauls and french ;)
No chance of mosaics under that dirt floor inside?
I am wondering how did romans cut grass and maintain these big areas from plants growing back.
How different is Roman era architecture in North Africa from later Moorish architecture?
I was reading about the mosque (now church) of Cristo de la Luz in Toldeo, and as a layman, the exterior doesn't look totally removed from Roman architecture (save for the windows.)
Thanks for the follow along vid. Who was the guy boasting loud he wasn't going to advertise tours into N. Africa anymore? Kinda rude to do that while people are recording things of their learning viewing on a tour.
They should disassemble that prison and put the ruins back together as they were.
Well thanks France!
La France 🇫🇷 est un fléau pour ce monde
Je suis Algérien 🇩🇿 et je sais de quoi je parle
Merci l’Allemagne 🇩🇪 de les avoir calmés en 1939
It is not a call to prayer, it is a call to submission
Is that cows making noise in the background?
No, far worse, it's the Muslim call to prayer.
you wish lol
Coming soon.
@@lloydritcheyYou can cry about it.
I normally like the Adhan but that sounds awful like a they were butchering sheep or something.
@6:28 "Ah... The French" TBF, the stone had probably been looted for hundreds of years prior as well.
All of Algeria is full of ancient monuments that do not exist in any other country. The French occupation destroyed Algerian cities, especially the city of Algiers, the largest city in North Africa. During the Ottoman era, the French destroyed the entire city of Algeria, including its palaces, mosques, walls, and castles, and rebuilt them in the French style. The French also destroyed all of the Algerian manuscripts, until Algeria became without manuscripts or archives.
Because the Ottomans didn’t do the same to many Christian cities: most notably - Constantinople.
Those horrible haunted house sounds in the background are truly unnerving .
What you hear is the call to Muslim prayer.
@nihilmiror6312
Nah bro , they be playing that recording of spooky sounds. People play that at Halloween time . 🎃
Some fool be punking the tourists ! 😄
I'm curious as to the lack of visitors, do the Algerian authorities discourage tourism?
I've been to loads of archaeological sites all over the world where I was the only one there. People flock to Pompeii, Ankgor Wat, the pyriamids of Giza and skip about everything else!
I think it's too run down (only the arch left) to be a worthwhile tourist destination over better-preserved ruin.
There aren't many tourists in Algeria, and most of the relatively few who do come stick to the coast.
that and it's not so safe
Sounds like cattle pens - likely smells the same.
50 acres, 5000 soldiers. I think that must have been fairly close quarters. The Internet says an acre is slightly smaller than a.US football field. Imagine 100 Roman soldiers and their camp followers all living and working on a football field. Not enough room to swing a cat.
Was the pyramidal roof made of wood?