Sarmizegetusa Regia Dacian Fortresses Orastie Mountains
Dating from the 1st centuries BC and AD, strewn from Orastie Mountains to almost inaccessible heights of the Retezat Mountains, the Dacian and later Roman fortresses are in 1999 recognized by UNESCO as the World Heritage Sites. Sarmizegetusa Regia strongholds and sanctuary provide true delights to the archaeologists and visitors thanks to the mysterious and a bit hidden complex of the Sarmizegetusa Regia Capital of Dacian Kingdom, some 60 km south of Deva. The Sarmizegetusa locality (also known as Sarmisegetusa, Sarmisegethusa, Sarmisegethuza, (Zarmizegethousa), (Zermizegethouse) was the ancient royal capital and seat of power of kings Decebalus and Burebista, the stronghold and the most important military, religious and political center of the Dacians built to protect the capital from the invading legions of the Roman Emperor Trayan during the Dacian Wars – 101-102, 105-106 AD. Erected on top of a 1200 meters high mountain, the Sarmizegetusa fortress was the core of the strategic defensive system in the Orăştie Mountains comprising six citadels, and thus the center of power easily defensible even against attack from the kingdom’s outlying regions.
Sarmizegetusa Regia was the important Dacian capital prior to the bloody conquest of this area by the Roman Empire. It was one of the oldest places of worship worldwide, built gradually over a long period on hidden geometric patterns underground temples and Neolithic structures well over 10 to 11 thousand years old. Built as a defense ring around the capital of the Dacian kingdom of Sarmizegetusa, this site includes the ruins of the fortrified strongholds and temples at Banita, Capalna, Costesti – Blidaru, Costesti – Cetatuie, Luncani – Piatra Rosie, as well as pre-Roman Dacian capital (Sarmisegetuza). The Sarmizegetusa localities themselves are extremely worth visiting as they are the only surviving examples of once powerful culture of pre-Roman Dacian state. The Dacian fortresses in Sargmizegetura Regia show an unusual fusion of military and religious architectural techniques and concepts from the classical world and the late European Iron Age. The most important remnant of the Sacred Area is the Sarmizegetusa Regia, a large nearly circular astronomical temple and the Great Cosmic Dacian Calendar – central component of a Geto Dacian astronomical observatory center. The sacred zone of Sarmizegetusa site includes a number of rectangular spiritual temples and the bases of their supporting columns are still visible in regular arrays, testifying on brightest moments in the history of Dacians. The site contains circle elements made of andesite pieces of total 210 objects: the outer circle has 104 stone blocks, and the inner one has 30 groups of 6 + 1 segments each, of which 6 are vertical (obelisk), and the seventh is a block placed horizontally.
“To understand the intricate workings of the Getae-Dacians, we must look behind the veil of secrecy to discover what enlightened King Burebista. Was it the lands he chose to build his kingdom upon? What did his organization learn to prompt him to create in the Huneadura-Orăștie Mountains? Did Burebista construct Sarmizegetusa Regia, their networks of temples and fortresses over other ancient ascended societies before them?
The emerging architectural realizations of Sarmizegetusa Regia, its magnificent temples and fortresses surrounding it, tell a story of the Getae-Dacian’s relationship with their land and religious practices. Unfortunately, a tiny portion of Sarmizegetusa Regia and its royal palaces, treasure, and metalwork have been discovered. Further, its secrets complementing world history are hidden deep in the ground and forests; its glory is shrouded in chambers and tunnels. Sarmizegetusa Regia was constantly evolving; every king added a section and had his reason for doing so. For example, Sarmizegetusa Regia was not created by Decebalus; before him, Burebista and Deceneus administered the bulk of its construction.
In my perception, you can observe the different dynasties by the temple stones; there are three different sizes of diameter and craftsmanship. The earlier Sarmizegetusa Regia of Burebista and Deceneus are the smaller pillars of the temple, closest to the two circular monuments and the lunar andesite disc. Likewise, these temples at Sarmizegetusa Regia are similar to those in the Geto-Dacian capital Costesti, where King Burebista and his associates lived. Further, historians and researchers have spoken about the numerology of the temples being an organized system of 12×4; however, it’s difficult to know because the pillars have been altered and moved. The more prominent temples were added to Burebista’s Sarmizegetusa Regia during the dynasty of Goths and Decebalus. But, like all ancient history, the majority is based on assumptions we can never be 100 percent accurate unless we have a time machine.” Stephen Aube – Ancient Geto Dacian Stonemasonry
The civilization of the Getes and Dacians can be distinguished in the Thracian world long before Herodotus first referred to them in the 7th century BC, as “the bravest and fairest of all the Thracians”. The Dacians were the only (and last) entity left in Europe to pose a real threat to Rome… culturally, economically, politically and military. The tribe of Getes inhabited the Danube river plain while the Dacians lived in the central and western part of the region between the Carpathians and the Danube. It was a typical Iron Age culture, practicing agriculture, stock-raising, fishing and metal-working, as well as trade with the Graeco-Roman world. When Greek colonies were established along the northern shores of the Black Sea, the Geto-Dacian rulers established close links with them and extended their protection. The Geto-Dacian kingdoms of the late 1st millennium BC attained an exceptionally high cultural and social and economic level, represented and symbolized by this group of fortresses, proving the fusion of techniques and concepts of military architecture from inside and outside the classical world to create an unique style. The Dacian rulers became increasingly involved in the internal politics of the Roman Empire, and suffered accordingly from punitive expeditions. The lower Danube frontier (limes) was constantly the scene of cross-border raids and campaigns. This entered a new phase in AD 86, which marked the beginning of a series of bloody Roman-Dacian wars.
Stephen Aube: ‘Long ago, the hills and valleys of the Orastie Mountains were a Getae-Dacian city whose architectural achievements rivalled Rome and Greece; the Getae influenced Roman and Greek societies. So it’s not about erasing history; it’s regarding who we are using to uplift a county and its communities. Blidaru is one of the finest superior-engineered Geto Dacian fortifications, spanning over 6,000 square meters. The large fortress stones are connected with style and perfection; you can still see the impressions from metal ornaments fastened to the rock for aesthetics. Imagine thousands of years ago, white stones and temple pillars dressed in gold, silver and bronze trim. The Geto Dacians were very advanced in architectural design and metallurgy, both scientifically and spiritually. In other words, everything they created was intended to work harmoniously with nature, the Gods and Goddesses. As a result, the fortresses were built to protect Temple life; without a strong military presence, there would be no primitive sciences (Spiritual-Practices). Geto Dacian Video https://www.facebook.com/stephen.izreal/videos/3823114761241094?idorvanity=600451777838573
In the spring of 101 the Roman Emperor Trajan, having secured his Rhine frontier, took the bloody offensive against the Dacians. King Decebalus unified the Dacian kingdoms and concentrated his forces in the Orašţie Mountains, where he submitted to Emperor Trajan. An uneasy distribution of territory ensued, broken in 105 when Decebalus seized the Roman governor Longinus. This time he could not hold the Dacians together against the powerful Roman army. His capital and his fortresses were overwhelmed and Decebalus himself committed suicide in eastern Transylvania to avoid capture. King Decebelus head was brought back to Emperor Trajan. This campaign is graphically depicted in the reliefs running round Trajan’s Column in Rome. With the demise of the kingdom, Dacian society also fell apart. Some of the common folk emigrated, and of those who remained some were taken into slavery. A large part of the Dacian population was either exterminated or driven northward. The rigidly stratified society’s highest caste, were decimated and extinguished, and the survivors lost their status. The priesthood’s authority vanished along with the Dacian kingdom; there is no surviving trace of a Dacian religion during the Roman period. Those Dacians who remained in place had great difficulty in becoming integrated into the society of a Roman province. In other conquered lands, the Romans could work with the only interlocutors that they were prepared to acknowledge, the aristocracy; but in Dacia, the aristocrats had disappeared, leaving the people without representation. It was this social vacuum, as well as the loss of population, that prompted Trajan and his successors to encourage people from other parts of the empire to settle in conquered Dacia.
”The Geto-Dacian Bronze Hexagon Matrix of Sarmizegetusa Regia was discovered in 2013 that containes 3,000-year-old Zodiac or a press tool/casting mould for constructing jewelry, maybe both. The Romanian lands are much older than we currently perceive – there are layers of history hidden beneath its surface, artifacts from the Neolithic Era and older than recorded history. However, like today’s archeological discoveries, the Getae uncovered their earlier inhabitant’s treasures and monuments, building around and over their ancestors. In my opinion, one key to understanding the ancient past is to acknowledge the civilization you are studying has an original history page and similarities with everyone else. Fortunately, the unearthing of the bronze Hexagon Matrix contributes many pieces to the Earth’s and Geto Dacian’s mysterious past. The zoomorphic designs on the hexagon matrix were intended to be pressed into precious metals to make jewelry, showing the unique style or story of Geto-Dacia and Sarmizegetusa. For example, the matrix may be the layout or blueprint of Geto Dacian astrology. Next, the animals consuming each other on the matrix are called cusps, a person born towards the end of a zodiac sign. Also, a similar zodiac was found in central Egypt on the Hathors temple’s ceiling dedicated to Osiris at Dendera with animal hieroglyphics. Even today, some religions use zodiacal animal notation and hexagons to showcase astrology. An example of this map is the Mosaic of Bir Chana in Tunisia, created by the early Christian religion through the Roman civilization in the 3rd century AD. Finally, by exploring the designs on the matrix, regardless of my interpretations, you can observe the elegance via art and mythology the Geto Dacians expressed 3000 thousand years ago“. Source: Ancient România
Trajan resettled Dacia with Romans and annexed it as a province of the Roman Empire. Trajan’s Dacian campaigns benefited the Empire’s finances through the acquisition of Dacia’s gold mines. The Romans seized an enormous amount of wealth after they immediately started exploiting the rich Dacian mines. The victory has been commemorated by the construction of Trajan’s Column in Rome which depicts in stone carved reliefs the Dacian Wars’ most important moments. Dacia became a Roman Imperial province, and its fortresses were slighted, but the Romans benefited both militarily and materially from this conquest. New Roman towns were created, but none of them on the site of the former Dacian settlements, with the exception of Sarmizegetusa, which was given the resounding Roman name Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa.
Sarmizegetusa was the capital and the largest city of Roman Dacia, later named Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa after the above mentioned earlier Dacian capital located some 40 km away in mountains. Built on the ground of a camp of the V Macedonian Legion, the city was populated with veterans of the Dacian wars. With an area of 30 hectares and a population around 20.000 and strong fortifications, Colonia Ulpia Traiana Dacica Sarmizegetusa was the political, administrative and religious center of Dacia Romana in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa – the capital of the Roman Dacia – rose at the bottom of Retezat Mountains, in the South-Western part of the Hateg region, as the Roman capital of the Dacian provinces and the first Roman city north of the Danube, southwestern Transylvania. The exact period when the city was built is not known. Some say the first settlement was erected between 106-107, other say it was between 108-110. The town was situated at 8 km from the pass between Banat and Transylvania, whose ancient name was Tapae /present Iron Gates of Transylvania/. Bordering to the south the Gold Mountains with their extraordinarily well preserved Roman mining town of Alburnus Maior (Rosia Montana), the importance of this area is further enhanced by the immediate proximity of the most navigable waterway in Transylvania, the Mures River, and one of the imperial roads from Sarmizegetusa to Apulum (Alba Iulia), capital of Dacia Apulensis. The Historia Augusta records that the end of Roman Dacia occurred when attacks by the Carpi and Goths had troubled Illyricum and Moesia, but other sources state that it happened with the loss of the territory under Gallienus followed by Aurelian’s final abandonment!
Sarmizegetusa was the most important Dacian military, religious and political center. Erected on top of a 1200 meters high mountain, the Dacian fortress was the core of the strategic defensive system in the Orăştie Mountains, comprising six citadels. The system developed by the Dacians to defend their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, was composed of three distinct fortified elements: the oldest is represented by fortified sites on dominant physical features, which consisted of palisade banks and ditches. The second group is that of Dacian fortresses. The final category is that of linear defenses, which blocked access from certain routes and linked two or more fortresses. There are three components of Sarmizegetusa, the capital of Dacia: the fortress, the sacred area, and the civilian quarter. The Grădiştea plateau is dominated by the fortress, which was the center of secular and spiritual government. The sacred area is situated to the east of the fortress. Access is by means of a paved path on the west and a monumental stone stairway on the east. The civilians lived around the fortress, down the mountain on man-made terraces. Dacian nobility had flowing water, brought through ceramic pipes, in their residences. The archaeological inventory found at the site shows that Dacian society had a high standard of living and performed highly advanced culture.
The Dacian capital of Sarmizegetusa reached its acme under King Decebal who fought two wars against the Emperor Trajan of the Roman Empire in 101-102, the first successfully repelling the Roman invaders, and again in 105-106, the second culminating in the Battle of Sarmisegetusa, and the bloody defeat of the Dacians. An inscription discovered at the beginning of the 14th century, in the village Gradiste – Sarmizegetusa says: “On the command of the emperor Cesar Nerva Traianus Augustus, son of the divine Nerva, settled the Dacian Colony by Decimus Terentius Scaurianus, its governor”.
Dacia was to remain part of the Roman Empire until 274, when the Emperor Aurelian abandoned it in the face of irresistible pressure and destruction from the Goths. The Sarmizegetusa site has been subjected to endless looting by professional thieves searching for the legendary golden treasure of the Dacian kings. Today Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa remains in ruins, with a partly conserved forum, an amphitheater, and remnants of several temples. At Sarmisegetuza visitors can still see the remains of the forum and the elliptical brick and stone amphitheater where gladiator shows were held. The National History of Transylvanian History is to coordinate a four-year research and restoration of the amazing Dacian fortresses and sanctuaries in Orastie Mountains because much still needs to be understood concerning the nature of the Roman occupation and the manner of interaction between Dacians and Romans.
Akasha Grp by Stephen Aube: The 2500-year-old Geto Dacian Grotto: ’Was there a Getae Oracle Living at the top of Banita fortress? Banita was constructed by King Burebista to protect Sarmizegetusa Regia, but local legends say it was much more. The Banita fortress is set on a small limestone mount called Dealul Cetatii or Dealul Bolii, with a magical stream flowing around the hillsides and a cave. Ultimately, the mountains and Grottos were associated with the Geto Dacian Goddess Bendis and Kotys (Cotys). Kotys are alike, if not identical to, Bendis; they were known as Mountain-Mothers and their caves as “womb tombs.” At first, I was disappointed because I could not climb the mountain in the winter; you need special equipment, it is very steep and rocky, and even in the summer, it is advised not to go up unless you have a guide. Consequently, the fortress remains were dismantled to build a train system; they used the fortress stones to support a bridge system, so there is nothing to see at the top of the architecture.
Nevertheless, I ventured into the cave and felt its healing vibration. I was excited to find a Geto Dacian sacred cave/grotto. Before Bănita, I experienced a smaller cave called Cioclovina, very close to Piatra Roșie; the experience at this location was similar, but the Boli cave was amplified with oracular and healing energy. Of course, I don’t want to compare the caves as better than the others; they offer a unique experience. But Cioclovina does offer a skull from the Upper Paleolithic period dated 33 0000 years old; it’s one of the oldest, somewhat complete skulls found of an early human living in Europe; discovered in 1941. Caves of power have been a place of healing for many societies since antiquity; it was a place of refuge where the person sought the true self. Often, one walks a pilgrimage into the cave and meditates deep into the soul. Perhaps an oracle was present; they knew the secret healing powers of the cave. Also, the oracle sourced unique crystals to amplify healing, creating fires to burn plant medicines and applying the sacred waters to make elixirs to heal disease. In addition, caves, in general, were symbolic openings to the Earth’s womb. During King Burebitsa, the Getae Dacians were involved in Goddess cults and worship; we call this a matriarchy in our present time. Besides, I discovered this by studying their architecture, monuments and treasures; I was surprised by the vast esoteric-Goddess information scribed in these items. Of course, the Getae had oracles and military stations on hilltops or mountains to accommodate pilgrims and seekers of wisdom and intervention for infertility, sickness, and misfortunes. Conclusively, prophets, priests, priestesses and oracles worked under the king and advisers to serve as an outlet for the pilgrims and seekers to voice their concerns. Akasha Grp by Stephen Aube: traducere in romana https://male-frame.weebly.com/b259ni539a-traducere-in…
Hiking enthusiasts can enjoy the trails in the nearby Retezat National Park, the oldest in Romania (established 1935), which is one of the most isolated and spectacular wilderness areas in the Carpathians. Covering 95,000 acres of pristine forests, alpine meadows, peaks, and some 80 glacial lakes, the Retezat Mountain area was designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reservation and provides unforgettable hiking experiences among its peaks, valleys, rivers and gorges. Gradistea Muncelului Cioclovina is a protected area with the status of “natural park, established in 1979 at the borders of the Retezat Nature Park on the surface of 100 sq km, covering the massive of the Sureanu Mountains, with the Orăstie Mountains and Sebeşului Mountains as subdivisions which comprises the area of the Dacian and Roman ruins at Sarmisegetusa and other Dacian relics in the Gradistea Mountains east of Hateg. There are comfortable and nicely appointed accommodation in Petrosani available for visitors of the wonderful Saramizegetusa site.
The Dacians – People of Ancient Times
