Geograph - photograph every grid square

The name Arbeia refers to 'the place of the Arabs' and the fort was manned by soldiers from all over the Roman Empire at various periods, and was a vital supply base, especially for grain storage, for Hadrian's Wall.

It later became a Saxon Royal site and later still was so in ruins that it was robbed out for stone and fell under the plough again, until it was settled again during the Industrial Revolution to house workers in the shipyards, the factories, the mines...It was rediscovered in the 1870s and the rest is history.

I have been to Pompeii and Herculaneum, and to Rome, and visited British Roman sites at St Albans / Verulamium, Caerleon / Isca, York / Eboracum etc and this site at South Shields is maybe one of the best.