The Marmorata

The Marmorata, on the Tiber, the ancient port of Rome, 1870. 'Here the marble still used by the sculptors of Rome is landed from the quarries. [Marmo is Italian for marble.]...the place...is formed of a series of inclined planes or ascents from the river up to the top of the bank on which the great storehouse stood...In the centre of each [incline]...are large projecting stones with a single hole in them. These are supposed to have been used to pass the ropes through, in mooring the vessels, as the outward corners of the sides of these holes all show signs of being rubbed by ropes. The goods would be carried up on men's backs, or perhaps by handbarrows. It is interesting to a maritime nation like the English...to see revealed, after being buried for centuries, the quays of ancient Rome which were at one time busy with commerce...Egypt and other parts of Africa, Greece, and the Grecian islands supplied the marbles for the temples and palaces of ancient Rome......Prince Torlonia has made a present to the Pope of a strip of land along the bank of the river, with all that it may contain below; and has built a wall along his vineyard where the remains of the Emporium are situated. This wall is seen in the sketch which we have engraved'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870. Creator: RCH. (Photo by The Print Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images)