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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (47405)	2/24/2000 12:33:00 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Yes, the Romans certainly knew a lot about working with materials. When I was at university a few years ago, there were a couple of people there who were involved with the digs at Caesarea Maritima in the vicinity of Haifa. That seaport was built by Herod between 22-10 BCE. Do you know of it? Pretty amazing logistics... The outer harbor was about 50 acres in size and was built on an unstable, windswept area of the coastline of the Mediterranean. The actually harbor enclosure was one of the largest artificially constructed harbors ever built. In order to build the harbor walls, the Romans constructed huge concrete blocks poured inside of great timber forms floated out on the open sea, making use of the first hydraulic concrete on so large a scale. The concrete consisted of aggregate cemented together with mortar made of lime and volcanic ash with the ash causing the mortar to harden when it came into contact with the water. The seaport was used until almost 1300 when it became silted in from lack of upkeep. It was eventually deserted until excavations began in the 1950s. Most of the underwater archaeology didn't happen until more recently.