The island of Gaddtarmen (Hauensuoli, The Pike´s Gut) off Hanko forms a natural harbour on a sailing route in the east-west direction. Sailors have made more than 600 carvings on the rocks while awaiting favourable winds. The oldest drawings date from the 15th and 16th centuries. Most of the carvings decpict coats of arms of Swedish and Finnish gentry. Probably the most famous carving was made in 1754 by Field Marshal Augustin Ehrensvärd, the originator of Suomenlinna sea fortress.
The site is a unique document relating to the history of the Baltic Sea. It’s added to the tentative list of Unesco World Heritage Site by the National Board of Antiquities.
Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.