Classics
Department

Mérida 2000 through the eyes of Leanna Sykes

Outside the hotel in Mérida

This is an extract from Leanna's project about the Year 7 visit to the Roman remains of Mérida.

When we arrived at the hotel we were given our room keys. We then had free time to go and unpack and change clothes. We met downstairs ready to go and visit the Alcazaba.

The Alcazaba was built by the Arabs. You can see part of the old Roman town below ground level over a large area of the Alcazaba. To build the walls of the Alcazaba they used Roman stones. One type of stone they used was tombstones from Christian graveyards.

In the Alcazaba there is an Aljibe which was used for getting water so the people did not have to go outside of the Alcazaba. There are two entrances when you go in, so that the animals could go down one way and up the other. The steps were made very large so that animals could go down because they were used to carry the water. Outside, the two entrances are decorated with pilasters which the Visigoths made. The Visigoths arrived in Spain after the Romans but before the Moors.

There is a Roman bridge next to the Alcazaba which is very long. There are big arches and in between them are little arches to make the bridge stronger if the river should flood. This bridge was cut twice, once when Spain was at war with France when the Duke of Wellington removed two arches and once by a flood.

After we had looked around the Alcazaba we visited went to the main plaza. We had free time there so we had a drink and talked to some other children who were there. After about 20 minutes we all walked back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We went off to our rooms and had a shower, we then changed clothes if we wanted to and went down for dinner. It was nice and after we had all finished we went for an evening walk. We walked across the bridge next to the Alcazaba which was always lit up but it was a very long walk to the other side of the bridge. Some people ran across! When we were all tired, we headed back to the hotel. We then had 15 minutes to get ready for bed and then we turned our lights out.

Working in the amphitheatre

The next morning we woke up at 8 o'clock, got dressed and went down for breakfast. Some people were late for breakfast because they found it hard getting up at 8 in the morning! When we had finished Mr Bennet told us that we were going to have a busy day so we must have everything we need. We collected our rucksacks and we were ready to go.

First we went to the temple of Diana which was very interesting. It is most likely that this was where one of the Roman forums was because it is at the other end from where the two main streets cross. The temple has not fallen down over the last 1500 years because after it was used as it was made into a house about 1600. The temple has Corinthian columns holding it up.

When we arrived at the amphitheatre we walked up some stairs to sit on the seats. We had a great view of the whole amphitheatre, so we took it rough sketch of it. The amphitheatre could see 15000 people. They reached the seats through tunnels and staircases. There is a cross shaped hole in the middle of the amphitheatre. People think that it may have been used for sea battles because water from one of the reservoirs flowed into this part of the amphitheatre.