The German Limes in Lich
From 12 b.C. onwards the Romans more and more ventured into the Germanic areas east of the river Rhine. From 89 a.C. they built the 550km long Limes, the border fortification, stretching from the Rhine to the Danube, which is a World Heritage since 2005.
7,5 km the Limes runs through Lich area, which thus, is part of the World Heritage.
With a distance of 300m to 1km there were watch towers or roman forts. In Lich area are to be found a cohort fort ("Alteburg"), a small fort (Langsdorf) as well as 11 watch towers.
Until 260 a.C. the Limes was manned.
Cohort fort Alteburg
Key:
| A | Wall with turrets | B | Headquarter | |
| C | Granary | D | Commanders house | |
| M | lodging house (?) | 1-4 | Gates | |
| E | medieval church | grau | roads |
The so called "Alteburg" was the northernmost cohort fort placed some 1km south of the Limes. Originally built of wood and housing some 500 soldiers. After some time stone was used for the walls, the headquarter (principia), the commanders house (praetorium) and der granary (horreum). The main gate faced east and just outside there was a bigger building which probably served as a lodging house (mansio).
Vicus and Amphitheatre
To both sides of the old roman roaf leading south there was the forts village (vicus), the thermal bath, the cemetery and an amphitheatre.
In the village the families of the soldiers were living, there were inns, houses for craftsmen and merchants. the houses were 5-7m wide and stretched 30-40m from the road.
there are stone foundations legt of temples as well of an amphitheatre, which wasn't completely round and had a diameter of 31-32m.
The thermal bath was outside the southern gate of the fort.
Roman watch tower
the part of the Limes north of Arnburg monastery is one of the best preserved parts in Hesse because it's location in the forest. East of Muschenheim village in a thicket is the stone foundation of watch tower 4/62. Nearby today is a modern tower with identical dimensions to the roman tower, thus the view being similar to the one, the Romans once enjoyed: At the horizon one can see the Taunus mountains with the big tower on Feldberg mountain. The Limes ran there as well. To the north one can see the tower of the Dünsberg, where up to shortly before the Roman occupation, there was a celtic village and fortification.