Albania

Elbasan is a city in Elbasan County. The third largest in Albania, located on the Shkumbin River. The municipality is the city Elbasan. Population is 141,714 in a total area of 872.03 km2 It was called Neokastron, ‘New Castle’ in Greek. The modern name derives from the Turkish il-basan, ‘the fortress’

In August 2010 archaeologists discovered two Illyrian graves near the walls of the castle of lbasan. In the second century BC, a trading post called Mansio Scampa near the site of modern Elbasan developed close to a junction of two branches of an important Roman road, the Via Egnatia, which connected the Adriatic coast with Byzantium. It was one of the most important routes of the Roman empire. By the third or fourth century AD, this place had grown into a real city protected by a substantial Roman fortress with towers; the fort covered around 300 square meters. This city appears on late antique itineraries like the Tabula Peutingeriana and Itinerarium Burdigalense as Scampis or Hiscampis.

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