The return of water to Rome’s ancient Baths of Caracalla after more than 1,000 years was on Friday greeted by ballet dancers performing on a platform over a newly installed pool.
One of the largest thermal complexes ever built, the baths were begun by Emperor Septimius Severus in 212 AD and completed four years later by his successor Caracalla. The ruins are now a popular tourist destination and host concerts and theater.
This month local authorities unveiled a project to re-introduce water to the site, installing a large, shallow pool which reflects the towering walls of the ancient buildings.
Photo: Reuters
The pool, dubbed the Specchio, or mirror in Italian, is a 42m by 32m rectangular structure that is 10cm deep, designed by architects Hannes Peer and Paolo Bornello.
It is meant to evoke the so-called Natatio, the largest of the several pools in ancient Roman baths, usually found at the center.
“Water, an element that has been absent for more than 1,000 years, returns in a decisive yet respectful way to the ruins,” Mirella Serlorenzi, the site’s director, said.
The installation, which is fitted with submerged water jets and lighting effects, is part of a broader project by Rome’s cultural authorities to make the city’s ancient sites more similar to how they were originally conceived.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
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