As with most attractions we’ve visited so far, Las Setas (Metropol Parasol) has Roman ruins beneath its market, which in turn has Islamic ruins from the 12-13th centuries below it. The Roman ruins were discovered during the construction of Las Setas and preserved for visitors. A visit to the ruins was free for the kids and a whopping €2.10 for me!
The ruins are of an area settled around 40 AD, with a city wall and delimited plots for craftsmen.The standard layout of homes had a central courtyard, with columns made of circular bricks. In later times, the columns were made with marble.Important spaces are paved with mosaic tiles.There was a lot of tile, and quite a bit is very well preserved / restored.The kids couldn’t get over the size and intricateness of the work.The town had cobblestoned streets with sewers and lead water pipes.One of the homes (domus). Homes of the noble typically had a well, a shallow pool, and various family rooms.Taking a closer look.This is supposedly the remains of a doorjamb from a funerary or religious building.This was a massive area – makes sense as it was of a town in the Roman times.See the itty bitty Nolan in the back right corner.That money is new, not from olden days. And no, you can’t fish it out somehow!Salting Factory – specifically, a salt-fish factory. How did they know that??? Read on to find out 🙂Salting vats, with modern day pipes running over them.The plate contains bones and scales of the different fishes recovered and analyzed from the area with the vats. Marble basin from a house fountain. If you look very closely, you’ll see Arabic inscriptions around the top. Muslims, Visigoths, and Romans, built on top of each other at the same site.There were excellent interactive displays for the kids to learn about the ruins. He really wanted to lean on a column – this was the closest I would let him get to one.2.5 km for our explorations of these ruins.
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