Going up the mountain

We have arrived in the Town of Sarmisegetuza and the weather is really warm. We are graciously housed by locals who are trying to open their own motel/inn called Zamolxes ( which happens to be the name of the main Dacian God)

I took a photo of their kitchen. They like to keep it simple and traditional.





We went to Orastie, the town closest to the Dacian Sarmisegetuza. Here i found a wall mosaic from the communist period which glorifies Burebista and his cheiftans and a slightly over life-size bronze of the king, dedicated by the "Dacia Revival Society of New York." (who knew?)The locals are very taken with them as they stand prominently in the city center, in front of the town hall.

Click to read more about Burebista

In translation: Burebista, King of Kings, 82-44 BCE


Next we tried to reach the actual site. Upon entering the grounds, we are greeted by a monumental but traditional porch, with reliefs of both Burebista and Decebalus both of whom are considered the two main Dacian kings.


Unfortunately we found out that the last 10 km of the road were snowed in and our small car wouldn't make it up. oh well. i took a picture of the view towards Sarmisegetuza.


On the way there I also looked at the mountain's morphology aka what rocks did the dacians have to built their cities/fortresses. See the shiny slivers in the basalt ? that makes iron. we also found calcareous rocks but no silver and gold as the area is famous for these precious metals. we would have probably had to dredge the river bed....




On our way back from Orastie, we ran upon yet another Dacian monument: this is called "Brishca lui Decebal" and represents the sword he used to take his own life when overrun by the Romans. It stands on a hill and it's well lit at night. Must be a sight to see...