Figure 48. The last bit of sediment disappearing, 10 am, 13-11-2015. The team had chosen to work Friday instead of Saturday, to have their Grand Finale a day early! Photo by Muaffaq Hazza.
Figure 10. Roman Reservoir the day after the rains, 2-2-2012.
Figure 16. Removing stones from sediment basin 1, 19-10-2015.
Figure 14. The last frog standing, 21-10-2015.
Figure 22. Stone and soil removal – experimental; it proved very difficult to flip the stones over the top edge. 22-10-2015.
Figure 21. Smaller stones were carried up the steps in a grand 15 minute ‘parade’ in which the 20 members of the Commodus Gate Preservation team participated. 21-10-2015.
Figure 18. Stone removal part 2. 19-10-2015
Figure 28. While stones were being removed, another part of the team began removing the soil using buckets and ropes. The strategy was to remove the thinner layers from the edges where bedrock was higher to isolate the deeper and thicker layer in the middle. This and the following 20 photographs show the soil ‘melt’ away until the final remnant is removed from the deeper center. 20-10-2015
Figure 62. The crew. Ali Aqil, standing far right, was the group’s foreman whose work strategy enabled the completion of the reservoir reconditioning in four weeks. Photo by visitor, 7-11-2015.