Thursday, October 17, 2013

Rome Holidays - 10 Roman Forums

There is a saying All roads lead to Rome.  Roman Empire was one of the greatest Empires in the human history.  It spanned across the entire European continent, and reached Asia in the east, and Africa in the south.  For such a huge empire, communication is the key.  The Romans built many express ways over the empire and all of them lead to Rome, the heart & soul of the empire.  Of that heart and soul, Roman Forums was where the heart of the heart was.  Political plots, military strategies were planned right here, as well as conspiracies.  Julius Caesar was also murdered some where among the ruins.

You may expect the place to be huge, but it is actually surprisingly small.    That again proves the teaching that no matter how rich, how powerful you are, you can only eat that much, you can only occupy that big a bed.  Everything else, that's for others :)

If you didn't read up about the place before hand, or didn't have a good guide, you may just walk past some historically important places without even noticing them.

Roman Forums

Look at that red arrow, that's the poster boy of Roman Forums.  Here I have a closer look at this landmark.  Just take note that the place is a fenced area.  You can't walk through it outside the opening hours.

Roman Forum Columns

Next, look at the dull building the blue arrow is pointing at.  Guess what it was?  No idea?  It was the Roman Senate!  It is a bit too uncharacteristic, isn't it?

The reason this place is called Roman Forums is because it consists many different forums, not just one single forum.

Caesar's Forum

A few broken pillars are what Julius Caesar's Forum remains today.  We can no longer imagine how splendid it used to be.

Directly opposite Caesar's Forum, across the road Via dei Fori Imperili, stands the ruins of Trajan's Forum.

Trajan's Forum

I am quite impressed by the extent how well preserved it is, after more than a thousand years!  Beside Trajan's Forum, it is the Trajan's Column.

Trajan's Column

If you can still remember column of Marcus Aurelius here, then you will find the two columns look like. That's actually true.  Column of Marcus Aurelius is a copy of Trajan's Column.

Details of Trajan's Column

Don't you think the column looks very small in size?  Do you know that inside the column, actually there is spiral staircase that can let people climb up the column from inside?  It is impressive, isn't it?  And do you see the small holes?  They are for light to sip inside the column to provide natural lighting and fresh air.  Ancient people were such genius, no wonder many people always think that aliens with high civilization once occupied planet earth.


You can find all my Rome Holiday posts here.

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