Ostia Antica

Sunday was Ostia Antica day and boy was it a day! A long, hot, interesting day in Rome's old port town. A scholar from UT (Austin) has been excavating at a synagogue found in the city, and he gave a group of us a very nice tour of the town. Above, one of the many beautiful mosaics that's survived two thousand years.


Here, you can imagine a road lined with shops. Above the shops, apartments. Apparently the upper apartments were the cheapest...and the hottest.


Doniamarie amidst the ruins.


The Capitoline temple was huge and built for the patron gods of Rome: Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva (I think). A very impressive sight!


A public latrine. Beneath the toilets was a steady stream of flowing water. Those Romans were very inventive.


My first poppy sighting, growing in an old Roman wall!!


This mosaic is from one of Ostia's baths (sorry, I can't remember which one!). Just amazing!


And here is what our UT guy (Michael White) has been working on - the synagogue. The only way to tell it's a synagoge is the menorah (look closely!). How incredible is that?!


One of our lasts stops was what I was waiting for: the mithraeum. Though Ostia has fifteen of these temples dedicated to Mithras, this was the only one we got to see (most are not open to the public). This mithraeum was beneath a bath complex and has this incredible statue of Mithras slaying a bull.


Yet another amazing mosaic. I love the swimmers!

I've never walked so much in my life as I did at Ostia but it was worth it. Just incredible! And only 1/3 of the town has been excavated!