Tanque dos Mouros
The Tanque dos Mouros reservoir is located on the outskirts of Estremoz in the Portuguese district of Évora, immediately south of the N4 Lisbon - Elvas . He fell partially victim to the construction of the national road. Regardless of this, its rectangular shape, which measures 45 × 90 m, can still be clearly reconstructed. However, the original soil level is far below today's level, which was created for the purpose of agricultural use in the 1960s by backfilling with earth. The wall height of the storage tank is still 2.5 m on the south side. Its quarry stone walls vary in thickness depending on the slope of the terrain, which slopes to the southwest, so that the wall thickness is greatest there at 2.6 m. Here the pillars that support the wall are set closer together and are strongest at up to 2.6 m. The complex is dated to Roman times. Finds of Roman coins seem to confirm this. It is believed that the memory served as a reservoir for the nearby baths. It could have held 15,000 to 20,000 cubic meters of water.
On the southwest corner, pillars form two small rooms, one of which is closed by a wall with a doorway. In these rooms there are openings for draining the water. The escaping water jet could have driven machines. However, this assumption would have to be proven by an excavation. The dating of the water drains in Roman times is doubted, as these could also have been installed later. The Moors , to whom countless hydraulic engineering systems are ascribed not only in the Iberian Peninsula , but interestingly no dams come into question as the originator . The reason is believed to be that the ancient Roman dams were still in operation. The reservoir water was channeled through a canal leading towards the Gothic chapel of Nossa Senhora dos Martires, where Roman material was found on the surface.
Legend has it that the construction of the building was attributed to the Moors and associated with the construction of the nearby Torre dos Namorados .
literature
- AC Quintela, JL Cardoso, JM Mascarenhas: Aproveitamentos hidráulicos romanos a sul do Tejo 1986, pp. 135 ff.
- Thomas G. Schattner (Ed.): Archaeological guide through Portugal (= cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 74). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2313-1 p. 173
Individual evidence
- ^ Cidade de Estremoz Website of the city of Estremoz
- ^ Jean Gérard Gorges and Manuel Salinas de Frías: Les campagnes de Lusitanie romaine. Casa de Velasquez, 1994, p. 254 ISBN 84-86839-76-9
- ↑ José Germano da Cunha: Apontamentos para a História do Concelho do Fundão . Tip. Minerva Central, Lisbon 1892
Web links
Coordinates: 38 ° 50 ′ 0.5 ″ N , 7 ° 34 ′ 47.5 ″ W.