ostia

In the case of Ostia near Rome, they mined it for building material until it became a malaria swamp.

As an aside, if you ever visit Rome take an hour train ride to Ostia Antica.

There is some humorous graffiti in the latrine at Ostia Antica (pictured in the article).

Where Rome is crowded and super busy, Ostia Antica was relatively calm and low-stress.

One time when I lived in Rome, I was near Ostia and I saw a public water fountain.

I vacationed in Rome several years ago, and I took the subways to Ostia to see the ruins.

That kind of housing goes back at least as far as the Roman insulae, which you can still see in places like Ostia Antica.

I just recently visited Ostia Antica, the main port of Ancient Rome; it was absolutely massive.

The Ostia relief was tucked away in a corner and I nearly missed it.

There were some cool mosaics we saw last summer in Ostia Antica.

They have the best and most complete ruins in the vicinity of Rome, and Ostia is second only to Pompeii in the size of the collection and site.

I tried to compensate by visiting not-so-wellknown locations such as Ostia Antica, the ancient port of Rome, which is most of the time reasonably empty.

Rome is on the Tiber, which flows directly into the Tyrrhenian Sea (via Ostia, which was Rome's "Oakland" and had its own sizeable population in antiquity).

When I visited the ancient city of Ostia ("Ostia Antiqua"), I saw several murals, some on the ground with instructions on how to walk on them, and some stacked vertically with chips that had fallen into the soil.

It says: ”Claudius constructed the first harbour on the Portus site, 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Ostia, enclosing an area of 69 hectares (170 acres), with two long curving moles projecting into the sea, and an artificial island, bearing a lighthouse, in the centre of the space between them.” Those constructs must have decreased water flow, allowing (more) silt to settle.

I thought the secret of Roman concrete was the Tufa, a pyroclastic sand, which was used, for instance, in the construction of the Port of Ostia.

The official city limits of Rome extend quite far out into the countryside (all the way to Ostia), so by this reckoning, I think the Vatican area would encompass the lion's share of the buildings/population.