Tour Magne

Tour Magne, Nimes. Image published under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license

The Tour Magne is a Roman watchtower constructed on Mont Cavalier, the highest point in the city of Nimes.

The tower dominates the surrounding plains and the Via Domitia, the Roman road between Italy and Spain. It is a remnant of the fortifications constructed by the Emperor Augustus two thousand years ago.

The structure was built on the oval  base of a previous tower which existed prior to the absorption of Nimes into the Roman Empire.

A ramp, seventy metres in length, once led from the ramparts of the oval base to the ground. Only a single arch and the last section of the ramp remain.

A curtain wall constructed on the oval base encases the polygonal tower.

The Romans increased the height of the previous tower from eighteen metres to thirty-six metres. The tower is now only thirty-two metres high since some of the stones have been removed from the summit.

It is possible to climb to the summit of the tower by means of an internal staircase.

By raising the height of the tower the Romans not only improved the city's defences but emphasised the superiority of their own civilisation and values.

Nimes had been a Celtic settlement for several centuries prior to the Roman invasion. The tower was built in the vicinity of a Celtic shrine. It therefore marked a holy place as well as a strategic location.

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