One river, two faces, a drowned island # The gorge that swallowed an island The Danube enters Romania through a 134-kilometre cutting, from Baziaș to Gura Văii: the Iron Gates. And in the middle of the cutting, at the Cazane narrows, the river squeezes down to some 150 metres wide and digs some 53 metres deep — its narrowest and deepest point on the whole journey through the country. Here the Romans cut a road into the cliff, here Trajan set his plaque in the year 100, here a face dozens of metres tall was carved at the end of the 20th century, and further downstream an island of 511 people vanished under water. We raise the water together, from the low Roman level to today's lake: on the left you see the period and the place in the story. The gorge answers a single question: what did the water swallow — and what did it leave above? ## Where we raise the water Between Orșova and Dubova, Mehedinți county, on the Romanian bank of the Danube — with Serbia across the water. The map below takes you from the country to the Cazane. Orșova Dubova Drobeta Orșova Dubova Drobeta Outlines: Natural Earth (public domain). Coordinates: Nominatim / OpenStreetMap. Geology · 140-million-year limestone ## Why the river squeezes here The Cazane are two: the Cazanele Mari, some 3.8 kilometres long and 200–350 metres wide, and the Cazanele Mici, some 3.6 kilometres, with widths between 150 and 350 metres. The narrowest point, the some 150 metres, lies in the Cazanele Mici. The walls are Urgonian limestone, some 140 million years old: Ciucaru Mare and Ciucaru Mic on the Romanian bank, Mount Štrbac on the Serbian one. How deep? Tourist brochures say 75 metres, but the serious measurements — five works cited by the park monograph — give some 53 metres. The difference matters: 53 is the measured depth, 75 the storied one. And the depth changed with the dam anyway: today's water stands tens of metres higher than the Romans' water. The road · Cut in cliff, held on beams ## A Roman highway above the water Before the plaque there was the road: works began under Tiberius, in 33–34, continued under Domitian and finished under Trajan, for the Dacian Wars. Where the cliff allowed, the road is cut into it; where the wall drops straight into the water, the Romans drove wooden beams into the rock and laid the way on brackets above the river. Boats were towed upstream from here: the rope grooves still show in the stone. How long was it? The exact length is not established in the sources consulted. But we know how long it lasted: the road stayed in use until about 1970, when the reservoir covered it. And Trajan's canal, over 3 kilometres long and 40 metres wide, is a separate work, dug in rock downstream — do not mix it with the road. The inscription · Year 100, not 103 ## The plaque Trajan set in the cliff Above the road, on today's Serbian bank, Trajan set a plaque the size of a house wall: 175 by 410 centimetres, a tabula ansata held by two winged genii, with the kneeling Danube below and eagles and dolphins above. Found at the end of the 17th century, the plaque announces the finished works in the defile. Its date is the year 100 — the year 103, sometimes read, is a mistake. When the lake came, the rock with the plaque was cut out and lifted by some 14 metres, on the same spot. The 30–35 metres sometimes mentioned are the rise of the water, not of the plaque. The Latin text is explained word by word on the companion page [Tabula Traiana](https://mariuscomper.uk/tabula-traiana/); here we care about the stone and the place. Today the plaque is seen only from the water, from the boat. Tabula Traiana, year 100: the plaque and the two genii. Photo: Sanja026, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The face · Modern, not ancient ## Decebalus, carved at the end of the 20th century On the Romanian bank, at Mraconia Bay, by the Cazanele Mici, a giant face watches the river: Decebalus. Let it be clear from the start: the face is not ancient. Works began in 1993, after Iosif Constantin Drăgan bought the mountain, and finished in 2004. The Italian sculptor Mario Galeotti surveyed the rock and made the first sketches; then, from March to October, in two six-hour shifts, climbers drilled 20,000 holes, broke the cliff with dynamite and crushed 6,000 cubic metres of stone. How big is it? Here the sources disagree and this page shows both measures: the work's own site says 42.9 metres high and 31.6 wide, the guides say 55 by 25 metres. Whether 55 is the whole composition and 42.9 only the face is settled nowhere. The inscription below, carved in 2000, says plainly who paid: DECEBALUS REX DRAGAN FECIT. And “the tallest rock relief in Europe” is a phrase often repeated, not a record anybody measured. The face of Decebalus at Mraconia Bay, 1993–2004. Photo: George Bufan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The island · Ada Kaleh, between dam and Orșova ## An island with a Turkish town Between the dam and Orșova, in the middle of the Danube, stood an island 1750 metres long and 400–500 wide: Ada Kaleh, with a mostly Turkish little town. In 1966 the island's file counted 511 people in 163 households: 444 Turks, 61 Romanians and a few Albanians, Hungarians, Czechs and Serbs. The first trade was commerce, then fishing, timber rafting and orchards; a cigarette factory started in 1925 kept 68 workers. The island's rahat, tobacco, jam and coffee were famous on both banks. The island had a fortress too: an 18th-century bastion complex, with a Turkish cemetery. When moving time came, part of the fortress was sheltered on Șimian island, where it stands today under the monument code LMI MH-II-a-A-10411. Of the mosque the stories say it was moved as well — but it is verified nowhere, so this page says only this: we do not know. The island mosque on a 1902 postcard. Photo: unattributed postcard, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. The moving · 70 families to Turkey, 60 to Constanța ## The people leave, the stones stay Evacuating the island stretched across the late sixties: 70 families left for Turkey, 60 for Constanța, 10 for Orșova, 5 for Turnu Severin and 4 for Bucharest. The decrees of the time are cited in studies, but their texts were not found in the open archive. And the exact months of the drowning are unknown: the museum says 1968, other sources 1969–71; a photo of 20 August 1970 still shows fortress walls above water. Nor was Ada Kaleh alone: the lake swallowed 10 localities on the Romanian bank and 7 on the Serbian one. Old Orșova drowned in 1970, and the new town rose between 1966 and 1971 on another site; Tisovița, Plavișevița and Ogradena were abolished, their people moved to Eșelnița and Dubova; Vârciorova drowned too, and of Drencova only a small port stayed. The dam · Romania and Yugoslavia, together ## The wall that raised the water Iron Gates I is a two-country work: Romania and Yugoslavia opened the site together on 7 September 1964, with both heads of state at Gura Văii and Sip, and the inauguration came on 16 May 1972. Between them: the first Romanian lock, on 14 August 1969. The dam stands 60 metres high and 1278 metres long, between Vârciorova and Sip, at kilometre 943 of the Danube — 15 kilometres upstream of Drobeta. The effect is measured in metres of water: plus 30 metres at Vârciorova, plus 20 at Orșova, plus 5 centimetres all the way at Baziaș. The figure specific to the Cazane was found nowhere — the levels in the 3D section are schematic, not measured. The dam changed the river, the banks and the lives on them; this page gives no verdict: it shows the metres and the years and leaves the reckoning to each reader. The Iron Gates I dam, 1964–1972. Photo: Ванилица, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The drowning · The years the island vanished ## How a town disappears under water The drowning was not a moment but years: the waters rose gradually, house by house, street by street, until the island was nothing but a memory under the lake. The 3D section shows just that: the houses slip under one by one, and the level climbs from the Romans' water to the dam's water. The exact month when the last patch of dry land vanished is recorded nowhere — which is why this page says 1968–1971, a span, not a date. And today, when the waters run very low, some say walls can be seen. Nothing verified: this page promises no ruins at low water. What stays certain is in the figures above — metres, years, families — and in the stones sheltered on Șimian. Today · Park, boats, two inscriptions ## The gorge to visit Today's gorge sits in a nature park of 115,655 hectares, with 18 reserves: entry is generally free, and the strict-protection zones are visited only with rangers. Boats from Orșova and Drobeta pass both faces — the plaque and the face — and only from the water are they well seen; for information about boat trips, see the sibling page [Cazanele Dunării](https://mariuscomper.uk/cazane-dunarii/). And the Iron Gates Region Museum shows what the water brought to light before the drowning. At the end of the climb two inscriptions stay facing each other across the water, some 2 kilometres apart and 1900 years apart: TRAIANUS in the year 100 and DRAGAN FECIT in 2000. An emperor announced a finished road; a rich man signed a face. The Roman plaque was raised to save it from the lake; the face of Decebalus was carved after the dam was built. The Cazane at dusk, from the water. Photo: Cristian Bortes, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. ## Choose a moment in the story Choose a place or period. The 3D representation follows the story; its water levels are schematic. ## The gorge: how to measure a narrows The Cazane are where the Danube does the opposite of what you expect: instead of widening, it squeezes. The Cazanele Mari run some 3.8 kilometres between banks 200–350 metres wide; the Cazanele Mici run some 3.6 kilometres, with banks between 150 and 350 metres. The minimum width — the some 150 metres — is about one and a half football pitches. And the depth of some 53 metres is about a 17-storey block turned upside down. The walls that squeeze the water are Urgonian limestone some 140 million years old, from when a sea stood here. The left, Romanian bank raises Ciucaru Mare and Ciucaru Mic; the right, Serbian bank raises Mount Štrbac. Beyond the figures, the Cazane's lesson is one of honest measure: 75 metres of depth sounds good in the brochure, but the serious measure says 53 — and this page says the serious one. For the classroom: draw in your notebook a section through the Cazane: two walls 150 metres apart (at your scale) and 53 metres of water between them. Mark two hypothetical levels, 20 and 30 metres higher. How much would the depth increase in each case? These rises were recorded at Orșova and Vârciorova, not at the Cazane. ## The faces: two inscriptions, 1900 years apart On two kilometres of water stand two signatures in stone divided by nearly two millennia. The old one, of year 100, announces a finished work: the road through the defile, built on the emperor's orders. The new one, of 2000, signs a work of pride: a face paid by a rich man, Iosif Constantin Drăgan, and carved by climbers from an Italian sculptor's sketches. Both pose the class the same question: who pays for the stone, and what is written on it. Trajan wrote that he finished the road — an account to his subjects and to posterity. Drăgan wrote DRAGAN FECIT — “Drăgan made this” — a founder's signature in Roman style, on a Dacian face. One announces a public work, the other a proper name. And both their measures read the same way: the plaque is 175 by 410 centimetres measured, the face has two stated measures — 42.9 by 31.6 metres by the work's site, 55 by 25 by the guides — and this page shows both, for their truth still hangs in the balance. For the classroom: the face of Decebalus stands, by the smaller measure, 42.9 metres. How many 1.5-metre pupils stacked head to toe reach his brow? (Hint: 42.9 divided by 1.5.) And by the larger measure, 55 metres? The gap between the answers is exactly our ignorance. ## The island: what the water swallowed Ada Kaleh was no empty island but a whole little town: 511 people in 163 households, with a cigarette factory, with trade, with orchards, with a mosque and with a fortress. The 1966 file records the residents' occupations: trade, fishing, rafting and fruit growing. The island's rahat and coffee were famous — on a patch of land only 1750 metres long. The moving scattered the little town: Turkey, Constanța, Orșova, Turnu Severin, Bucharest. The fortress stones reached Șimian; the houses went under water. The table below lists some of the places covered by the lake — with known years and approximate periods. What the water swallowed on the Romanian bank | Place | What it was | When it drowned | Ada Kaleh | Island with a town: 511 people, factory, fortress | 1968–1971, gradually | Old Orșova | Bank town; rebuilt in 1966–1971 | 1970 | Tisovița, Plavișevița, Ogradena | Villages abolished; people to Eșelnița and Dubova | the dam years | Vârciorova | Village drowned; water +30 m; people to Severin and Ilovița | the dam years | Drencova | Village gone; a small port stayed | the dam years | The Roman road | The way cut in cliff, used since the 1st century | c.1970, under the lake ## Eight sentences: true or false? Choose. The answers are checked against the page's sentences. - Trajan's plaque is of year 100, not of 103. - The plaque was lifted by 35 metres together with the lake. - The Cazane are 75 metres deep, measured. - The face of Decebalus is modern, carved between 1993 and 2004. - The face has two stated measures, and this page shows both. - Ada Kaleh held 511 people, most of them Turks. - It is certain that the island mosque was moved to Șimian. - The dam raised the water by 20 metres at Orșova and by 30 at Vârciorova. Share ## How we worked and what we do not know The Cazane depth and the water rise come from the scientific monograph of the Iron Gates Nature Park: some 53 metres of depth, plus 30 metres at Vârciorova and plus 20 at Orșova. The plaque comes from the Danube limes file: year 100, 175 by 410 centimetres, lifted by some 14 metres. The face comes from the work's site: 1993–2004, 42.9 by 31.6 metres, the inscription of 2000. The island and the dam come from the museum file and the national press agency's chronology: 511 people, 1750 metres, 7 September 1964, 16 May 1972. Where the sources disagree — 42.9 against 55 metres, 1968 against 1969–71 — this page shows both variants and says plainly where it does not know. The 3D section is schematic: the water levels are drawn, not measured in the Cazane — the figure specific to the Cazane was found nowhere. What we do not know yet: the exact length of the Roman road, the month the island drowned, whether the mosque reached Șimian, and whether anything shows at low water. When new measures or records appear, the page changes. ## Sources - [Iron Gates Nature Park: the scientific monograph](https://www.pnportiledefier.ro/) — 53 m depth, +30/+20 m water, the drowned villages. - [The Danube limes (Serbia): Tabula Traiana](https://www.danubelimes-serbia.rs/en/archaeological-sites/trajanova-tabla/) — year 100, 175×410 cm, lifted ~14 m. - [Decebalus Rex: the work's site](https://decebalusrex.ro/en/story-of-realization/) — 1993–2004, 42.9×31.6 m, the inscription of 2000. - [AGERPRES: the Iron Gates I chronology](https://agerpres.ro/documentare/2022/05/10/documentar-50-de-ani-de-la-inaugurarea-sistemului-hidroenergetic-si-de-navigatie-portile-de-fier-i-1--917796) — 7 September 1964, 16 May 1972, the moved localities. - [Tabula Traiana](https://mariuscomper.uk/tabula-traiana/) — the sibling page: the Latin text, word by word. - [Cazanele Dunării](https://mariuscomper.uk/cazane-dunarii/) — the sibling page: information about boat trips. [mariuscomper.uk](https://mariuscomper.uk/) · [Română](/portile-de-fier/) · Text and 3D: an educational sketch, not a survey.