The locks are referred to as Iron Gates but up river from the locks is a very narrow, deep gorge that is also called the Iron Gates. It earlier times men had to signal ships if it was safe to pass through since no two could pass at the same time. A carved door or gate is located at the waters edge where Romans had set a border on the river to divide the Ottoman Empire from Romans.
We are traveling between the Carpathian Mountains of Romania and the Balkan Mountains of Serbia. A carved face on the cliffs has the feel of being ancient but was actually created within the past few decades. If you have seen the movie “Lord of the Rings” you have seen this face.
Another country, Serbia, and another castle, Golubac, which sits at the other end of the Iron Gates passage. It was built to protect passage where the Danube is at its widest at 6.5 km. The fortress was built over several centuries and mostly completed in the mid-1400’s. It has 9 towers connected by walls except that each tower does not have an entrance from the wall. The walls of the towers are 1.3 to 1.6 meters thick and the tallest tower is 175 meters tall.
Beginning in 2014 when the locks were completed, they have rebuilt or replicated much of the castle, including taking out a road that ran through the middle of the complex. They have also discovered that there was once a large Roman community near the fortress which they will be excavating for years to come. Many artifacts have been found including bombs made from glass and ceramic materials.
We climbed to the top of one tower and entered another short tower that would have held the ammunition.
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