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Gheriat el-Garbia |
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| Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius. | ||
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If desert nomads (e.g., the Garamantes) wanted to attack the Roman empire, they had to travel through the arid desert and needed water. By fortifying the oases, the Romans effecively shut them out. Like Fort Gholaia (Bu Njem) and Gadames, construction of the fort at Gheriat el-Garbia was ordered by the emperor Septimius Severus (193-211). |
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The fort controled an oasis and the upper reaches of a little wadi that empties itself in the Wadi Zemzem. Gheriat el-Garbia belonged to the Limes Tripolitanus and was built on a hilltop that was almost impossible to attack. Unles you approach it from the northeast, you will have to build a siege mole, which is rather difficult in the desert. | |
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A map of the fort, which measured about c.185x135 m (24,800 m²), or double the size of the Bu Njem fort. The corners are directed to the four quarters of the compass. On the platform was a small well. Archaeologists have also identified cisterns in the northern corner of the ancient fort. The outer walls are almost entirely preserved, but the buildings inside did not survive. Berbers have reused them. | |
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The cistern, in the winter, when parts of the site are remarkably green. | |
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This is the northernmost tower, in the corner to the upper left on the map above. There was a cistern in the neighborhood. | |
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The northeast gate, from the inside. This was probably the main entrance gate, because it was the only gate that could be reached without having steep slopes to climb. It is a bit odd, though, that it was not directed to the enemy, as was usual in a Roman fort. | |
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Again, the northeast gate, southeastern tower. | |
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The northeast gate, southeastern tower and arch. On the next row, a panorama from the northeast, seen to the southwest. In the background, from left to right, the oasis. In the center the eastern gate and the Cardo Maximus, the main road of the fort. All buildings within the walls are post-Roman, built by Berbers. |
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The northeast gate from the outside. It was built by soldiers of the Third legion Augusta. This can be deduced from the towers which are not square, as is usual, but five-angled. This can only be found in settlements of the Third, which was based in Lambaesis in what is now Algeria. Gates like this can also be seen in Theveste and Bu Njem. | |
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A detail of the artwork on the northeast gate (the only surviving part, in fact): two Victories and two eagles carrying a laurel wreath. There was also an inscription, from which it is clear that the fort was built in 201, when Anicius Faustus was governor. | |
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View to the northeast gate from the Principia; this is the Cardo. There is some evidence that soldiers of III Augusta were sent abroad. The Römisches-Germanisches Museum in Cologne shows a tombstone of a legionary from III Augusta, who must have visited Gheriat el-Garbia too. | |
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The southwest gate, seen from the center of the fort. This gate led to nowhere: if you left the fort through this wall, you would just stumble into a deep ravine. | |
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One of the towers of the northwest gate, seen from the inside. The window in the wall is post-Roman, although it resembles a catapult's loophole. | |
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The same tower seen from the outside. Like the southwest gate, the northwest gate had no real purpose, although there was a track that connected the fort with the oasis. | |
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The north tower again, which has been put to good use by Berbers. | |
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About a kilometer to the distance, to the northeast, is this signal tower, which connected the fort with other military settlements. The large ditch in front is a quarry. To the east (not on the photo) the remains of two (perhaps three) temples have been identified. | |
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A close up of the round signal tower, which is known as GG7 in the catalogue of Graeme Barker e.a., Farming the Desert. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey (1996). Through this tower, Gheriat al-Garbia was in signalling contact with the centenarium of Gheriat esh-Shergia. The fort itself is known as GG1. | |
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This is the oasis that had to be controled. Because
there was water
and wood, a bathhouse (GG16) could be constructed,
the remains of
which have been identified about five hundred meters west of the fort.
Several kilometers east of the fort at Gheriat el-Garbia was Gheriat esh-Shergia. |
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After Antiquity, other residents started to settle in Gheriat el-Garbia. This is (rear side of) the mosque that was built by the Berbers. The mihrab can easily be discerned. |
Livius.Org, 2006 Revision: 10 February 2008 |
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