Hadrian's Wall is a 73 mile long Roman wall stretching coast to coast across one of the narrowest parts of Britain. Hadrian came to power at the height of the Roman empire and, challenged with maintaining the boundaries, had the wall built "to separate Romans from Barbarians." Some feel that the wall acted more as tax, raid, and immigration control vs. a base for attacking north and gaining more ground.
The wall varied in its construction and height depending on which legion was building it and what natural resources were available. It consisted of either stone or turf and was between 11 and 20 feet high at different sections. It's thought that this project acted as a kind of Depression-era work project that utilized the non-fighting skills of the legionnaires stationed far from home and, most importantly, kept them busy in a lonely, middle-of-nowhere outpost.
The defenses consisted not only of the wall itself, which would have been an intimidating statement of authority and organization to the "barbarians," but also a series of ditches, mounds, and a flattened area for a parallel "Military Road" accessed only by causeways. In essence, the Romans created a controlled militarized zone both north and south of the wall. Before we knew about the ditches on the south side, we suspected them. They are still visible as you drive on the current road that runs roughly parallel to the wall and they carve dramatic lines through the earth.
The Romans also built 14-17 forts connected to the wall, housing between 500 and 1,000 auxiliary troops each. Between the forts, they had up to 80 gated smaller milecastles (one each Roman mile) holding a couple of dozen troops each. Between the milecastles, they had another 2 small towers for signaling. In the beginning, the wall was probably manned by more than 10,000 soldiers. We visited two of the bigger Roman forts along the wall—Chesters and Housesteads.
Chesters was built to house 500 calvary and protect the bridge over the River North Tyne. It was occupied for nearly 300 years. In this view of the model (looking west) you can see that Chesters straddled the wall. At the bottom of the picture, you can see where the wall/bridge crossed the river and to the left of it was the army bathhouse.
Many parts of the bathhouse are well preserved and give a good idea of hygiene in the forts. It seems they had many of the amenities they would have had even in Rome. These cubbies in the changing room, with the remains of a partially buried bench below, look very similar to a bathhouse we saw in Pompeii. Some think that the niches acted as modern-day lockers and others think that they held statuary.
What always impresses me about Roman remains is the water management. We've all heard about the aqueducts, but their ingenuity essentially amounts to indoor plumbing. Here you're looking at a room for cold water baths. The channel brought water in to a "douching" basin and there's a "tub" integrated into the wall in the upper right for cold water plunges.
It was common for Romans to also have sauna-like bath treatments. Here at Chesters they had both wet and dry heat rooms. The rooms had raised floors and coals were stuck underneath inside "stoking holes" (shown in the bottom right of this picture). The air was heated and circulated underneath the floor, heating the room. They even went so far as to create a hollow roof system, and circulated hot air inside of that too, for additional warmth. Evidence of that construction can also be found at Chesters.
Underfloor heating was usually reserved for bathhouses. What I think is funny, and telling, is that the Commandant's house at Chesters has more of it than I remember ever seeing in a residence, most of it added in later phases of construction. I think the longer they lived here, the more they realized how miserable the weather is and decided to do something about it. I'm sure most of the "Romans" here had never been to Rome, but still came from much warmer climates. For example, the men stationed here were from Northern Spain.
Chesters also has a small museum housing artifacts found at the site. The similarities and consistency between Roman sites stretching from Turkey to Italy to France to England is so striking. You could believe that when you stepped out of the door, you'd be in Rome.
Housesteads was named Vercovicium by the Romans ("the place of effective fighters" or "hilly place") and is built at the midpoint of Hadrian's Wall. Housesteads is said to be the most complete fort still visible. Larger than Chesters, Housesteads held a cohort of around 800 infantry. The model below shows what the fort once looked like with the wall running along the top, or north, side.
Like the Roman name implies, Housesteads is situated on the top of a natural ridge and has great views in every direction.
The south double portal entrance gate
Reminiscent of Pompeii, you can see what looks like wheel ruts in the stone.
The main attraction at Housesteads is the latrines because they are so well preserved. In the picture below you can see a stone platform surrounded by a trench. It's thought that there would have been a wood bench covering the trench (with the appropriate holes of course). The stone platform has two basins which would have held sponges on a stick (aka Roman toilet paper). The small trough running between the basins and bench would have had water running through it for washing the sponges. It looks very similar to a public toilet we saw in the Roman civilian settlement of Ephesus in Turkey, except that the Turkish version had marble seats.
The great thing about Housesteads is that it's still linked to visible parts of Hadrian's Wall. We walked to the west along the wall, which had some dramatic views of the wall snaking over the hills and ridges. Today there are farmers' walls butting up to Hadrian's, but you can always find Hadrian's because of its dramatic width and the turf on top.
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