Touring Split, Croatia (12 June)

Split is the largest and most important city in Dalmatia, the administrative center of Croatia's Split-Dalmatia County, and the country's second-largest city. It is a Mediterranean city, situated on a small peninsula on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea. Split is also one of the oldest cities in the area, dating more that 1700 years, although some new archeological researchs show the possibility of the city being even older.

Toured Diocletian s Palace:

After almost dying from a sickness, the Roman Emperor Diocletian (ruled AD 284 to 305), great reformer of the late Roman Empire, decided to retire from politics in AD 305. The Emperor ordered work to begin on a retirement palace near his hometown, and since he was from the town of Dioclea near Salona, he chose the nearby seaside town of Spalatum for the location. Work on the palace began in AD 293 in readiness for his retirement from politics. The palace was built as a massive structure, much like a Roman military fortress. It faces the sea on its south side, with its walls 170 to 200 meters (570 to 700 feet) long, and 15 to 20 meters (50 to 70 feet) high, enclosing an area of 38,000m² (9½ acres). The palace water supply was substantial, fed by an aqueduct from Jadro Spring. This opulent palace and its surroundings were at times inhabited by a population as large as 8,000 to 10,000 people,^[1] who required parks and recreation space; therefore, Diocletian established such outdoor areas at Marjan hill.^[2] He later retired exactly according to schedule, becoming the first Roman emperor to voluntarily remove himself from office.^[3] Today the palace constitutes the inner core of the city, still inhabited, full of shops, markets, squares, with an ancient cathedral (formerly Diocletian's mausoleum) inserted in the corridors and floors of the former palace.

(Above) As Diocletianćs Palace would have looked originally . . .

The bishop (above) whom Diocletian had killed when Diocletian moved into town. They had riots of joy after Diocletian died, because Diocletian had killed so many. Diocletian wanted to be immortaliyed with where and how he was buried. Irony is the bishop and other religious figures have nice tombs and no one knows where Diocletian was buried.
Croatian Tie Shop just outside entrance to Diocletianćs Palace.

Grand entrance to Diocletianćs Palace.

Any resemblance here between Emily and Diocletian?
Underground passageways (some parts of which are now full of stores) are wondrous works of Roman engineering for accommodating the settling the structure, foundationally speaking, on a shifting water-logged area that abuts the sea. Hundreds of years of garbage being dumped down into here have provided archaeologists with a treasure trove of everyday examples of living throughout the centuries. Not nearly all of it is excavated yet either.





Outside look at Diocletianćs Palace.