Pont Ambroix
The Pont Ambroix or Pont d'Ambrussum was a 1st-century BC Roman bridge in the south of France, part of the Via Domitia. It crossed the Vidourle at Ambrussum, between today's Gallargues-le-Montueux in the Gard department and Villetelle in the Hérault department. In the High Middle Ages, a chapel devoted to St Mary was added to the structure. Today, only one of the original eleven arches remains in the middle of the river. Ambrussum contains three archaeological sites of international importance: the Colline de Devès, first occupied in 2300 BCE and settled as an oppidum between 300 BCE and 100 AD; the bridge was sketched by Anne Rulman in 1620 and the drawing shows only four arches. An 1839 lithograph and a painting by Gustave Courbet show two arches; the Vidourlades are violent floods on the Vidourle, in which the water flow increases from a minimum of 3 m3/s to over 3000 m3/s. Floods were recorded 8 October 1723; the floods of 18 November 1745 reduced the bridge from four arches to three. Further major floods occurred 6 October 1812, 21 October 1891, 21 September 1907.
The floods of 7 September 1933 reduced the bridge from two arches to the one we see today. The site was abandoned; the bridge is a Mérimée list National Monument No. PA00103057; the oppidum is Mérimée list National Monument No. PA00103760 O’Connor, Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, p. 97, ISBN 0-521-39326-4 List of Roman bridges Roman architecture Roman engineering Media related to Pont Ambroix at Wikimedia Commons Pont Ambroix at Structurae Painting of the bridge by Gustave Courbet
Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort
Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. The town barracks. A book titled'Divided Loyalties' described life in the commune and the area during the Second World War as experienced by Janet Teissier du Cros and family. Communes of the Gard department INSEE
Saint-Roman-de-Codières
Saint-Roman-de-Codières is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. Communes of the Gard department INSEE
Sauve
Sauve is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. In the early-1990s American underground comic artist Robert Crumb traded six of his sketchbooks for a townhouse in Sauve, he presently lives there with his family. The drummer of the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts has an apartment in the town. Roger Katan, French-American architect, planner and activist, resides in the village. Sauve is twinned with: Broughton in Hampshire, England Communes of the Gard department INSEE Official site
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa and on the east by the Levant. Although the sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is identified as a separate body of water. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was or desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years, the Messinian salinity crisis, before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. It covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, representing 0.7 % of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar-the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa- is only 14 km wide. In oceanography, it is sometimes called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere.
The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m and the deepest recorded point is 5,267 m in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, in the south by Africa, it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, on the southwestern coast of Turkey, is 4,000 km; the sea's average north-south length, from Croatia's southern shore to Libya, is 800 km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times that allowed for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples of the region; the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. The countries surrounding the Mediterranean in clockwise order are Spain, Monaco, Slovenia, Croatia and Herzegovina, Albania, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia have coastlines on the sea.
The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean ἡ θάλασσα or sometimes ἡ μεγάλη θάλασσα, ἡ ἡμέτερα θάλασσα, or ἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ'ἡμᾶς. The Romans called it Mare Mare Internum and, starting with the Roman Empire, Mare Nostrum; the term Mare Mediterrāneum appears later: Solinus used it in the 3rd century, but the earliest extant witness to it is in the 6th century, in Isidore of Seville. It means'in the middle of land, inland' in Latin, a compound of medius, -āneus; the Latin word is a calque of Greek μεσόγειος, from μέσος and γήινος, from γῆ. The original meaning may have been'the sea in the middle of the earth', rather than'the sea enclosed by land'; the Carthaginians called it the "Syrian Sea". In ancient Syrian texts, Phoenician epics and in the Hebrew Bible, it was known as the "Great Sea" or as "The Sea". Another name was the "Sea of the Philistines", from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites. In Modern Hebrew, it is called HaYam HaTikhon'the Middle Sea'. In Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ'the Middle Sea'.
In Islamic and older Arabic literature, it was Baḥr al-Rūm'the Sea of the Romans' or'the Roman Sea'. At first, that name referred to only the Eastern Mediterranean, but it was extended to the whole Mediterranean. Other Arabic names were Baḥr al-šām'the Sea of Syria' and Baḥr al-Maghrib'the Sea of the West'. In Turkish, it is the Akdeniz'the White Sea'; the origin of the name is not clear, as it is not known in earlier Greek, Byzantine or Islamic sources. It may be to contrast with the Black Sea. In Persian, the name was translated as Baḥr-i Safīd, used in Ottoman Turkish, it is the origin of the colloquial Greek phrase Άσπρη Θάλασσα. Johann Knobloch claims that in Classical Antiquity, cultures in the Levant used colours to refer to the cardinal points: black referred to the north, yellow or blue to east, red to south, white to west; this would explain both the Turkish Akdeniz and the Arab nomenclature described above. Several ancient civilizations were located around the Mediterranean shores and were influenced by their proximity to the sea.
It provided routes for trade and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages. Due to the shared climate and access to the sea, c
Gallargues-le-Montueux
Gallargues-le-Montueux is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. There is a public preschool/nursery as well as the public Ecole Elementaire la Maurelle; the collège serving the community is Collège de Gallargues-le-Montueux. In addition to Gallargues-le-Montueux, it serves Aigues-Vives and Aimargues, it opened in September 2014. As of 2017 it has about 600 students. Pont Ambroix Communes of the Gard department INSEE Gallargues-le-Montueux
Saint-Laurent-d'Aigouze
Saint-Laurent-d'Aigouze is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. The commune contains the ruins of Psalmody Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded in the 5th century. Communes of the Gard department INSEE
