Cartagena, Spain - Part 1

Today I visited the Spanish coastal city of Cartagena, where I went on a fascinating 4-hour tour, mostly by foot, and up and down many steps, under the leadership of a very passionate, knowledgeable local guide. 

This was not so much a tour of buildings, but rather an exploration of the past, through both our guide’s stories and visiting two fairly new, beautiful museums. The museums we saw, which are not the only two in the city, but perfect for our time there, are fairly new because they are built right at the site of two important sets of ruins, which were only discovered and excavated in earnest within the past 30 years. This work is not yet complete. Adding you our interest were the excellent short documentaries we saw in small theatrettes at each site before viewing the ruins. 

These are extraordinary ongoing projects that have involved a great deal of collaboration, not only between archaeologists and other experts in the field as well as builders and architects and town planners, but also between the community and businesses who backed them financially to make it all happen. This has resulted in a transformation of the whole city, which is now very proud of its heritage and a wonderful tourist destination for anyone who loves history. 

I have not studied history at a tertiary level, though love reading about it. So some of you may be able to add to or correct what I write now, in which case please contact me and help enrich my blog pages about this city. To write them I have had to rely on my memory of what we were told as we raced from place to place (and we did not have ear pieces to help) as well as of what I learned in the documentaries. We had no opportunity to buy booklets at the museums.  

The stories we learned started with the story of the Phoenicians, a people from the Eastern Mediterranean who mainly traders but also brilliant sailors. They established colonies in much of the Mediterranean, including the city of Carthage in about 800 BCE. After the Babylonians and Persians conquered Phoenicia, Carthage became the centre of their power. From there they began to establish colonies on the Iberian peninsula. The Iberians were peace-loving and just fell back behind the hills when this happened.

In about 240 BCE the Carthaginian known as ‘Hasdrubal the Fair’ founded the colony of ‘Carthago Nova’, or ‘New Carthage’, now known as Cartagena. This was thought to be an ideal site on terms of security from attack. It had several high hills and was almost completely surrounded by water, with just a narrow peninsula between two hills behind it. Knowing that nevertheless it was still likely to be attacked by the Romans, the first thing he set about doing was building a very high, double stone wall right around the city, with high gates opening onto the peninsula. A fortified castle with a great deal of weaponry was built on top of each hill. The space between the walls consisted of two levels, the bottom level consisting of stables housing hundreds of horses and the top level housing soldiers and armaments.

In the end that was not enough, but I will tell the next part of the story in the next post. 

In one of the museums we saw a little of this part of the history of the city. Over the centuries after that time, other civilisations came and went, and the wall was covered. This ‘burial’ was most fortunate, as it turned out, because the stones were made of limestone, which over 2000 years would have been destroyed through exposure to the air, rain, and so forth. It was only when the city authorities decided to build a car park deep in the ground the site was discovered. Then it was found that at one time, a few hundred years ago, some kind of monastery had been built on the site and there was a crypt containing bodies of monks sealed in tombs, which apparently was built between the ancient walls. This has now been partly excavated and all the remains and items buried with them have been taken by experts for recording and identification and safe storage. 

We were able to walk in there - a fascinating, eerie kind of experience. Objects have been placed in the crypts that have been opened up, but are not what was originally there. 

My photos tell more of the story. Unfortunately the surface of the wall map of the city over 2000 years ago kind of shimmered and would not photograph properly, but I am still including it for your interest.  

In my next post I will talk about the Roman times. 

An artist's drawing of the city the Carthaginians built.

Looking down into the crypt.

Looking down in to the ancient double wall.

Another view of the section of double wall, with some of the building between the walls.

Inside the crypt. Just one wall was unsealed. 

What it probably was like when each body was unsealed. 

Another view of the crypt.

On the walls before they were unsealed were frescoes of what were described as 'dancing skeletons'. 

This and the following photos are views of two of the hills from the roof of the museum.