Europe

[Visited: July 2020]

The drive up the Orăştie valley brings us always higher, through small villages and a thick forest, until we reach the end of the road, and park the car. A short walk takes us to the entrance of Sarmizegetusa Regia, the Dacian political, religious and military centre, and its capital. It flourished between the first century BCE until it was conquered by the Romans in 106 CE. Its last king Decebalus committed suicide when the Romans were chasing him, not wanting to be captured by the enemy; he is still considered a hero in Romania. The Dacian capital was razed. Sarmizegetusa Regia consists of three sections: the civilian settlement, the fortress, and the sacred zone. The modern visitor can see two of them, of which the fortress mostly has its walls visible. Most of it was completely destroyed by the Romans after they defeated the Dacians. They established a new Dacian capital some 40 kilometres away at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa. We walk past a stretch of the Dacian road, over the top of the mountain on which the Dacian capital was built, and start seeing the most interesting part of the ruined city: the sacred zone.
The ruins of rectangular temples are closest, and since there are no visitors there, we decide to start our exploration there. These are the oldest temples of the sacred zone. We see rows of circular limestone blocks. Fortunately, there are very useful signboards here, with drawings of what these temples must have looked like. The temple stood on a stone platform, which is still hidden in the ground, and which was accessed by stairs. Wooden columns stood on the limestone drums, with a roof on top. Iron and ceramic artefacts were found near the temple during the excavation. There is a smaller rectangular sanctuary next to the larger one. Families are coming our way, so it is time to walk to the main part of the sacred zone, with ruins of the newer temples. Before we get there, we see a stone sewer, which drained the liquids from the altar and temples, and the remains of the road that ran here.
The first notable object we see, is the circular andesite altar. It looks like a giant pizza, with the slices already cut. In reality, this is where sacrifices for the gods were made by the Dacians. Marble pieces were placed near the outside of the disk. A cut in one of the "rays" of the altar, dubbed a solar disk, drained liquids poured over the altar, and from there into the stone sewer. Close to the altar, we find the big circular temple, which is also circular. It contains several circles of andesite blocks and pilasters. According to the drawing on the signboard, it might have had a conical shaped roof. It had wooden posts, and the central room had an apse oriented according to the solstices. This sanctuary was very likely dedicated to the main Dacian god. We do not currently know much about the Dacian religion, as the temples were destroyed by the Romans. There is another, smaller, circular andesite temple nearby. Then, there are several quadrilateral sanctuaries in this part of the sacred zone. We also see the remains of a large rectangular temple, which the Dacians were building when the confrontations with the Romans started. It had 6 rows of 10 columns, but little remains of this andesite structure. When we walk up a small hill, we get a good overview of this section of the sacred area. Despite all the helpful drawings on the signboards, we cannot help but wonder: what must this all have looked like in the heydays of the Dacian capital? What if the Romans had not destroyed this city?

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Sarmizegetusa Regia (Romania)

Sarmizegetusa Regia > Romania > Europe

[Visited: July 2020]

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