Lower Danube

The history of Smederevo starts in the 1st century BC, with the conquerings of the Roman Empire, when there existed a town called Vinceia. The modern city traces its roots back to the late Middle Ages when it was the capital (1430–39, and 1444–59) of the last independent Serbian state before the Ottoman conquest.

Serbia is incredibly rich in Roman archaeological sites, as the Danube was also a border of the Roman empire, during centuries. Actually, 18 of the Roman Emperors (which means 20% of the Roman Emperors) were born on the territory of what is now Serbia. You could spend weeks here, visiting all of the sites, but unfortunately I don't have enough time to do it, so let's concentrate on Viminacium. This military town was built in 86. It was destroyed in the 5th century by Attila and his Huns, and was preserved under farming land until recently. The site is so extended that you use your car to visit the main sites, following the guide who is driving in front of the convoy.

The first thing to see is the excavated part of the necropolis. As the town hosted up to 40,000 inhabitants, you can imagine how many graves were built around.

Another interesting attraction is a Roman mammoth. OK, may be not really Roman, as she lived about 1,000,000 years ago. They have found Vika's skeleton (plus bones of several other mammoths) at a depth of 27 meters. Back then in this area, the climate was warm, with lots of vegetation growing in such conditions, later to disappear with colder climate cycles, when the wooly mammoth appeared (yes, I am talking about Manny, here ;-).

Closed to the necropolis, the experts are using what they discovered to rebuild a full domus, similar to the rich houses which could be found in the town during the Roman occupation.

Here are the baths:

And the reconstructed amphitheater, used for concerts nowadays:

Sometimes, you have surprises on the road (not even mentioning the horse carts which are used a lot by the farmers).

And, of course, my GPS keeps on looking for clever shortcuts, because it is a lot funnier to use such a bridge instead of the main road which is 200 meters away...

When you reach Golubac, the Danube runs in a deep valley. In the picture below, the river flows at the center, with the fortress guarding the entry on the right side (Serbian border), while on the left of the picture, you can see Romania.