ITP 2013 : September 19 – Fawzeia Ihmouda

Greeting from Tyne and Ware, “Newcastle “
Arbeia Roman Fort

Thursday morning we have been scheduled to visit the “Arbeia Roman Fort” in South Shields and it is around 50 minutes by train. The weather is not on our side, it is raining and very very cold (7 degrees). It’s our last day and we say we don’t mind to get wet. Therefore, we walk to the Train station with our Museum Partner representative Ms. Jacki Bland to South Shield.
We arrived at South Shield and the rain stopped. Yes! we walked 10 Minutes up to the hill and arrived at these amazing ruins.

It was Arbeia Roman Fort; we started our tour around the Museum. The museum was very warm and we loved that. The Museum is located in the front of the Arbeia Fort. It contains the finest collections from the excavations site. The interpretation was just amazing. After that we went to the site to see the ruins and the fort.

Let me give you a very short history of the site:

The Arbeia stands above the entrance of River Tyne, guarding the main sea route to Hadrian’s Wall – the great frontier system built in AD 122 to divide the Roman Empire from the Barbarians in the north. It was also an important supply base for the forts along the Wall. In AD 208- 10 it was the headquarters  for Emperor Severus, for his massive invasion of Scotland . Today, Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum tells the fascinating story of the Romans and also on the excavation that been taking place.

It was very cold but we were very enthusiastic to know more about the site and to see the ruins of the Fort.  We explored the remains of this important site, walking through the reconstructions of the original Fort buildings. Also, we walked around the extensive remains of the Fort and climbed inside the reconstruction of the fort’s imposing West Gate. We explored the reconstructions of the Soldier’s barracks block and the Commanding Officer’s house.

After this cold session we had hot chocolate.Then we had the best Fish and Chips in UK!