Discover a wonderland of Roman villas, ruins, tombs and bridges on Andalucía’s Ruta Betica

In Rome there is a hill called Monte Testaccio, formed entirely from the broken shards of millions of clay amphorae, which had been used to import olive oil. Analysis of Monte Testaccio reveals that most of this small mountain of waste, around 85% of it, originated in Andalucía.

A full millennium before the Moors had their heyday in Spain, the Roman emperor Augustus revamped the Peninsula into three Provinces of the Empire, Tarraconensis in the north, Lusitania in the middle and Betica in the south. Each province flourished but Betica (roughly corresponding to modern Andalucía) enjoyed particular success, with close on four centuries of growth and prosperity.

Olive oil-rich Betica had as its capital the city of Cordoba. The Moors built on top of the earlier city, of which little remains to be seen. The Roman Bridge over the Rio Guadalquivir was so well designed, it was used and repaired by the Moors, and has just been restored once again in a €30 million project. Behind the town hall, the fluted Corinthian columns that still rise to the sky once supported the forum.

These sights are overshadowed by the Moorish wonders of Cordoba but farther west, Seville has a more substantial Roman heritage in the ruins of Italica, across the river from the present day city. Here one can stroll through the cypress trees, stride like gladiators into the middle of the great amphitheatre, or wander among the grid of stone paved streets admiring the brilliant mosaics that have survived centuries of destruction and decay.

Outside of the cities, several Roman sites enjoy lovely country locations or, in the case of Baelo Claudia (now Bolonia) in the Province of Cadiz, an enviable seaside setting. This is where highly prized garum was produced, a fish sauce indispensable to Roman cuisine.

Travelling west on the A339 to Priego de Córdoba, you might feel a shiver running down your spine. When the roadbuilders scooped out the Almedinilla bypass in 1988 they found that they were carving through a Roman cemetery packed with hundreds of graves. A steady stream of cars passes through each day, their occupants unaware that they are cruising through the precise point in space where Roman corpses had lain, undisturbed, for nearly 2,000 years.

The accidental discovery by the bulldozers sparked a flurry of activity. Archaeologists recovered the data from the graves in the path of the road, found many more graves beside, and also discovered the remains of an extensive villa complex. Villa El Ruedo, excavated and partly restored, is now one of the most engrossing stop-offs along the Ruta Betica, an itinerary that links the important Roman sites of Andalucía.

Heading eastwards from Seville, one can explore the dark underworld of the Romans, at the vast necropolis in the suburbs of Carmona. Rock-cut tombs and tunnels provide a fascinating insight into the Roman way of death. Romans buried their dead in necropolii (cemetaries), usually outside the city wall. An exception was infants, often buried beneath the floor of the home. High-status Romans were interred in tombs. In Carmona (and in other places too) there are numerous rock-cut tombs with chambers opening off a short passageway. Archaeologists have given them names such as the Tomb of the Garlands, the Tomb of Servilia and the Tomb of the Elephant, after the name of the family (if known) or after distinctive finds (the latter produced an elephant sculpture). Internments here in the 2nd century BC involved a particular ritual in which the body was placed in a doubled-up position with the head facing east. In later (Imperial) times, cremations became more common, and also family tombs carved out of the rock below the surface of the ground.

Read the full story in our March 2008 issue.