The east gate and town wall – costly and unfinished
Standing in front of the preserved remains of the town wall you can see how massive the Roman walls were. You can also imagine the potential cost of such fortifications.
The construction of the town wall at Augusta Raurica began around AD 80 – it was planned to build a curtain wall with semicircular towers and with gates similar to those at Aventicum (Avenches in Canton Vaud).
The wall was almost two metres thick and its core was made up of a kind of Roman concrete. Gates were located in the south-west on the road to Aventicum and in the south-east on the road to Vindonissa (Windisch near Brugg in Canton Aargau). The construction of the town fortifications was never completed. The reasons for this are unknown.