Cotta Roman Ruins

Cotta was an industrial site rather than a town: a factory of the second and third centuries producing salted fish and garum, the fermented fish sauce that was a staple of Roman cooking across the empire and was made in bulk on the Atlantic coasts of Mauretania and Baetica. What survives is the plant - rows of rectangular vats lined with waterproof mortar cut into the ground, in which fish and salt were layered and left to break down, along with the remains of a bath complex, a small temple and the walls of the associated buildings. The vats are the thing to look at, because they explain what the site was for immediately in a way that most Roman ruins do not. It sits a few hundred metres from the Atlantic near Cap Spartel and the Caves of Hercules, unfenced and unstaffed, with a track down to it and no interpretation.

Highlights

• Garum vats - rows of mortar-lined tanks cut into the ground for salting fish.
• An industrial site - a factory of the second and third centuries, not a town.
• Bath and temple remains - the buildings that served the works.
• No interpretation - unfenced, unstaffed and unsigned near the Atlantic.

When to go

Spring and autumn. An hour, combined with Cap Spartel.

What to expect

There is no signage, ticket office or staff - the site is open ground. Without knowing what the vats are they read as empty tanks. Access is by a rough track. It is a short visit alongside the caves and the cape.

Nearby

The Caves of Hercules and Cap Spartel are a few minutes away.