Baelo Claudia, Roman archaeological site in Tarifa, Spain.
Baelo Claudia is a Roman archaeological site on the coast at Bolonia Beach in Tarifa, Spain. The complex shows remains of a forum, several temples, market structures, and a theater right by the shore with views across the Strait of Gibraltar toward the North African coast.
The settlement was founded in the second century BC as a fishing harbor and later grew into a trading post for goods between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. An earthquake in the second century AD damaged much of the town, and it was fully abandoned a few centuries later.
The site includes a fish-salting factory that produced garum, a fermented fish sauce distributed throughout the Roman Empire as a luxury food product.
The site sits in a windy coastal area where comfortable shoes and a light jacket are useful even on warm days. A small museum at the entrance displays finds and explains life in the Roman settlement.
The ruins sit so close to the water that visitors can hear waves rolling onto the beach while walking among Roman columns. On clear days, the mountains of Morocco are visible from the theater, just as Roman traders would have seen them two thousand years ago.
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