Noon Report:

• Location: N 37° 35.70′, W 000° 59.10′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Clear
• Temperature: 18º C; 64º F
• Wind: ENE 9 knots; 10 mph

We didn’t arrive in Cartagena until noon today so we started slowly. We enjoyed a lingered-over breakfast on the Aquivit Terrace and skipped lectures on The History of Aviation Safety and The Portuguese Empire as Cheryl went back to bed (her head cold is turning into bronchitis).

Pulling into port I noticed a couple of interesting boats:

So at 12:30 when I went ashore to meet our tour guide “Lourdes”, Cheryl was not with me. Today’s excursion was a 4 hour walking tour thru history. We covered (and not necessarily in this order):

Carthaginian town: Qart Hadasht (New Town)

Though there are cave paintings with reference to human habitation 1.3 million years ago, our tour started with the building of a Carthaginian town in 228 BCE to take advantage of ‘the most defensible harbor in the Mediterranean’ and to serve as a port for the very productive silver mines in the area.

We visited an archaeological museum dedicated to the remains of the Carthaginians (their empire was the Roman Empire’s nemesis). While there is very little as yet unearthed, we watched a video describing their rise and fall and viewed some artifacts and excavations.

The city wall was constructed as a double wall with multi-story storage facilities between. The outer wall was granite while the inner wall was sandstone.

Probably the most famous reference to Carthage is General Hannibal’s campaign to attack Rome during the Second Punic War in 218 BC. In a surprise move he crossed over the high mountain passes rather than along the coast with his army and 37 war elephants-losing most of them during the harsh conditions of the crossing. Hannibal dealt the Romans under Scipio several crushing defeats but ultimately failed to seize Rome itself.  Only one of his elephants survived the war.

Roman town: Carthago Nova (New Carthage)

The Romans conquered the town in 209 BC – by attacking from the landward side, not from the sea.
For the Romans, like the Carthaginians before them, the city was an important center in their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula as well as a source of silver.

We visited an excavation of a Roman house located under a more recent building. Later we saw the theater that was built between 5 and 1 BC and covered over in the 3rd century AD to build a market (reusing some of the materials from the theater). The market was destroyed in the 5th century and rebuilt in the 6th century. In the 13th century the old cathedral was built over the site. City records referred to a theater but gave no clue to its location. In 1988 a portion of a staircase was discovered and excavation of the theater began.

Modernista style: Cartagena

Two famous architects lived and worked in Cartagena at the turn of the last century. Tomas Rico was a student of Gaudi. You can see much of Gaudi’s Modernista style in Rico’s work. Victor Beltri was the official municipal architect for a number of years, and a main proponent of modernista principles.

Today: Cartagena

We spent quite a bit of time walking between these sites.
Here are a few pictures of interest along our travels:

Silver mining is much less of a factor in the local economy these days. However, tourism and the significant military presence have filled the gap.

There isn’t a huge military presence evident, but Lourdes mentioned that Cartagena is the main naval base on the Mediterranean and the home of the Spanish submarine base.

BBB tonight was the last of Bruce’s ‘Guess the Year’ events. We were proud of our 18/32 which earned us 4th place. And yes, we are glad to know that we’ll never have to endure another ‘Guess the Year’ quiz – at least on this trip.

And now – to bed.
R