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A few miles west along the coast beyond Tarifa, hidden from the main road beyond the rolling hills lies the Roman city of Baelo Claudia (Bailo). One of the best preserved Roman cities outside of Italy. Although the size of the ancient city is modest, remains of all the key elements of a Roman city maybe found clustered around the forum and the temples dedicated to the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno & Minerva), the official state pantheon of Imperial Rome.

Beside the central temple to the Triad, there's a temple to Isis which had a widespread cult following during the 1st and 2nd centuries when Baelo was at its height. Its significance at this location is due to the fact that the iconography of Isis was often associated with the Phoenician goddess, Astarte. It was the Phoenicans who originally founded the settlement at Baelo.

Following the defeat of Carthage (146BC) and in the subsequent centuries of Roman rule, Punic (Phoenician) presence on the coast of Hispania Baetica was all but obliterated and the population assimilated. The Romans however, were a pious lot. A conquered city may be  levelled and rebuilt, but efforts were usually made to appease the old gods of the land.

Isis/Astarte with her title, Queen of Heaven and frequently depicted seated with her son Horus on her lap served as a template for the iconography of Marian devotion in Christianity whose origins may also be traced back to 2nd century Empire. Cities may fall into ruin and be forgotten but folk memories live on.  Every September, like all other towns along the coast, Tarifa hosts a fiesta celebrating one of the incarnations of Virgin Mary, Fiestas de la Virgen de Luz, continuing a syncretic  tradition, which in this part of the world, goes back almost three millennia.

Visitors' Info:

The Fell Types is currently my favourite display font on my ebook reader. An old English typeface from the 16th century, warts and all.

Unlike the vast majority of modern reproductions such as those modelled on the venerable Garamond, this typeface by Inio Marini mimics the imperfect impressions made on paper by the old metal types.

“The versatility of the media tablet—able to serve as a reader of emails as well as books, while capable of surfing the Web and playing movies—has even overcome the cost advantages of the ebook reader.”

Announced the article on iSuppli last December and it was widely quoted in all the likely places. First the netbook, now the ereaders. Be that as it may…

I was in a London park over the weekend reading a PDF on my tablet. The sun came out and I was no longer able to make out the words on the screen. Admittedly the sun rarely comes out in London and the long summer days are short.

If you happen to be an avid reader, reading is an ubiquitous activity, daylight, sunlight, spot light and by candle light. Tablets that can't be read in the bright sunlight are useless. As for versatility, I prefer to use the  laptop for most general computing needs.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to have sojourned all summer long on a beach in south of Spain with scarcely a shade in sight. Punishing regimen, I know. Without the e-ink display on my reader,  I wouldn't have survived the gruelling hours.