The vast Tiber Emporium was the commercial river port of Ancient Rome, situated on the Lungotevere Testaccio bend of the river just south of the city. Established in 193 BC to supply the growing metropolis, it consisted of wharves, warehouses, markets and granaries. #LostRome 
Shipping docked at long stretches of wharves to offload their cargoes at the Emporium. These quays were revealed in excellent condition during 1868 excavations, with ramps and mooring for vessels intact, but not now mostly lost to modern development of the Lungotevere. #LostRome
Once offloaded, goods and foodstuffs would be brought to the Porticus Aemilia for storage and distribution. This massive, multitiered warehouse was likely one of the largest commercial structures in the ancient world, 500m in length and 60m deep with 50 aisles. #LostRome
Fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae show the Emporium complex and industrial scale of the warehouses. Seafaring vessels would unload their cargo downriver at Portus which would then be brought up the Tiber by barge 20 kilometres to the Emporium. #LostRome
Behind the Porticus Aemilia stood the enormous Horrea Galbae: storehouses for the crucial 'annona publica' (public grain supply) as well as olive oil and wine. All of Rome was fed by the supplies stored in this secure complex with three immense colonnaded courtyards. #LostRome
Used olive oil amphorae were dumped behind the horrea, over the centuries creating a massive artificial mound of broken pottery hundreds of feet high; this 'Monte Testaccio' (mount of shards) can be seen growing to the right of the illustration. #LostRome
Though the Emporium has long disappeared the rubbish dump it left behind has become the perfect illustration of Imperial Rome's colossal scale of consumption. The numbers are truly staggering; the hill made from the remains of over 50 million olive oil amphorae... #LostRome
The 'broken pot mountain' stands 115 ft high but would have been even higher in ancient times. Study of the shards show olive oil imports peaked in the 2nd century AD when about 130,000 amphorae were dumped each year and at least 7.5 million liters of oil consumed. #LostRome
The economic insights Monte Testaccio provides into Rome's import of goods from around the empire are amazing and worth wider reading. It stands as a powerful symbol of the city's mass-consumption, while the surrounding Emporium complex that created it has been lost. #LostRome
