Nîmes

  

(shot from inside the arène)

Nîmes is a very beautiful, very historically-rich city. It became a Roman colony sometime before 28 BC. Augustus was the famous Roman who lead Nîmes. The city was reinforced by fourteen towers along a great wall surrounding everything (the wall is long gone because Napoleon had it knocked down, but the gates still exist, one of which you'll see below). An aqueduct was built to bring the city water from the hills to the north (part of which being the Pont du Gard, which I'll have photos of up later). The original Nîmes has been very well preserved, and I loved going there and seeing all the true old Roman buildings (especially the arène, where I imagined the gladiators fighting right in front of me, like they did hundreds of years ago).

This is the arène. It is a Roman amphitheater from the 1st-2nd century (that is OLD). It is the best-preserved roman amphitheater in France. It was used for all kinds of entertainment/celebrations (like gladiator fights!), also serving as a section of the defensive wall surrounding the old city:

(Here is what Nîmes looked like in the 1570s, see the amphitheater over there on the left? You can also see the Maison Carée towards the top of the walled city, which you'll see pictures of below)

Here is Nîmes now (Thank you, Wikipedia)

The rich important people would sit up front, and the commoners (eww!) would sit further back. The oval shape of the amphitheater (as opposed to circular) allowed for maximized seating without compromising view or sound. Typically prisoners, or people who were sentenced to death, would have to fight one another in the middle ring. Or sometimes, when the Romans had come back from a journey to some far away land, they would come back with some kind of fierce exotic animal for the gladiator to fight. Because people were so entertained by all this, they began actually training the prisoners to fight while they were imprisoned. It was good for the prisoners because they wanted to be prepared if they were ever thrown into the ring, and it was good for everyone else because they got a good show out of it. And through this, certain former prisoners became crowd favorites and heros. It was so surreal to be there and think about all the death that happened down on that sandy ring.

 Remember how I was saying that the city used to be surrounded in a protective wall? Well this wall had only two gates to get in and out of the city, and they still exist. This is one of them, called the Porta Augusta:

La Maison Carée (The Square House)

This is a small Roman temple built around 19 BC, and is again one of the best-preserved Roman temples in the world (which may be why it was being worked on when I was there and couldn't go in). You can see this incredible intricate detail all over it:

More to come!