Zugmantel Limes Watchtower (Wp 3/15)
About
Watchtower Wp 3/15 stood beside the cohort fort at Zugmantel on the western Taunus ridge, close enough that its garrison could relay a signal to the fort gates in moments. It formed part of the timber palisade and ditch system that ran the length of this limes sector, fifty meters of which survive in reconstruction today. The tower watched the frontier road as it crossed the forested high ground above what is now Taunusstein-Orlen. Its post dates to the early phase of frontier building that Trajan's engineers carried out along the Taunus crest.
What happened here
A small stone tower with a timber top, sited so that it can see the next one along the line. Half a dozen men live in it. They watch the ground in front, and they watch the tower on either side. A signal — fire and smoke at night, something visible by day — passes a warning down the chain far faster than a rider can, though it can only carry a message that was agreed in advance. The rest of the time it is a lookout post on a road, a river crossing or a frontier line, and the work is boredom punctuated by inspections. Supplies come up from the fort behind. Towers on a frontier stand within sight of each other for hundreds of miles.
Sources
Nearby
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