Baelo Claudia

Baelo Claudia was founded in the second century BC and grew under Claudius into a town of a few thousand people whose economy was fish: tuna caught on the migration through the strait were salted in vats along the shore and processed into garum, the fermented fish sauce traded across the empire, and the vats are still there in rows. The forum, basilica, curia, temples to the Capitoline triad and to Isis, a theatre cut into the slope and long stretches of street survive, laid out on a beach with the dune and the sea directly behind and the Moroccan coast visible across the water. Earthquakes in the second century and later raids ended it. A modern museum stands at the entrance.

What you actually see

• The garum vats - rows of salting tanks along the shore.
• The forum and basilica - the civic centre with standing columns.
• The theatre - a Roman theatre cut into the hillside.
• The beach setting - ruins directly behind the sand with Africa in view.

When to go

Spring and autumn; summer is hot with almost no shade on the site, and the levante wind can drive sand across it. The site closes on Mondays and shuts earlier in summer afternoons.

Honest expectations

There is no shade anywhere on the site, and the wind at Bolonia is frequently strong enough to be uncomfortable. Parking at the beach fills completely in summer. Opening hours are shorter than most visitors expect.

Nearby

Bolonia beach and its dune are immediately alongside; Tarifa lies twenty-two kilometres south.