Testaccio Village

via di Monte Testaccio

About

If you thought garbage dumps are a bane of only the modern cities, then you are wrong. Monte Testaccio or the Mount of Testaccio is a huge dump of pieces of broken amphorae (clay pots used to store olive oil). But it is not as ugly as the present day city dumpyards. It is believed that about 130,000 such olive oil pots were dumped at this spot each year, leading to the creation of a 35 metre high mount. It was later strategically used by the Roman army as a watch tower, with carefully paved stairs leading to the top. Now this is a superb example of the ingenuity of the Romans.

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