Roman Watchtower Ruins, Watchpost 9/96 Heidenbühl

The Watchtowers
After more than 1,800 years, only the remains of the foundation remain today. Many towers have completely disappeared because their building materials were used for other purposes. Nevertheless, we know from archaeological findings and images on stone reliefs, such as Trajan's Column in Rome, what the towers looked like: three-story and around eight to ten meters high with a floor plan of around four by four meters. A ladder was used to reach the entrance to the room on the first floor. If the crew pulled it up, it was protected from attackers. The windowless ground floor probably served only as a pantry and was accessible via a ladder inside. The guard room was on the second floor, some with a wooden circulation, some without. From here, the surrounding area was monitored and communication with neighboring posts or to a fort at the rear was maintained using torches or bugles. Always within sight, 400 to 800 apart, the watchtowers formed a continuous chain of posts. An attack was immediately reported to the next fort, from where the troops moved out and confronted the enemy.

All of the watchtowers described below are located directly on the Limes hiking trail in the section between Siegelsberg and Töpfersberg. They are partially reconstructed and have been archaeologically examined. Based on finds recovered there and elsewhere along the Limes, we can now get a fairly accurate picture of life at the empire's outposts.

more: murrhardt.de/de Unser-Murrhardt/Stadtportrait/Stadtgeschichte/Die-Römer-in-Murrhardt/Die-Watchtowers

the WP 9/96 on the Heidenbühl is very well preserved and it is worth to visit this on the circular route. WP obviously stands for sentinels

Nice tower ... great photo opportunity