Augusta Raurica is a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum in Switzerland located on the south bank of the Rhine river about 20 km east of Basel near the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst.

[Apolli]naris [Augusta E]merita [Raur]ica (letters in brackets are reconstructions).

Apart from this fragmentary reference, the first certain witness to the use of the name Augustus comes from the geographer Ptolemy in the Ancient Greek form Augústa Rauríkon (lat.

Every important public building had its specific place, starting with the temple of Jupiter as the sacred high point from which the street network would spread.

The architect, who was responsible for executing the plans for the city, next laid a longitudinal axis across the triangle 36˚ west of north to form the main street of the settlement.

Early Roman cremation remains, found in 1937 by the church in Neuallschwil, show that such a post did exist on the main road north (toward Blotzheim) into Alsace.

By the 2nd century AD, Augusta Raurica was a prosperous commercial trading centre and, in its glory days, the capital of a local Roman province.

Augusta Raurica prospered between the 1st and 3rd centuries, and exported smoked pork and bacon to other parts of the Roman Empire.

The city possessed the typical amenities of a Roman city, an amphitheatre, a main forum, several smaller forums, an aqueduct, a variety of temples, several public baths and the largest Roman theatre north of the Alps, with 8,000 to 10,000 seats.

The Romans attempted to maintain their military position by building a fortress on the Rhine, Castrum Rauracense, the walls of which are still partly intact.

From 1588, Basilius Amerbach, assisted by the painter Hans Bock, documented the rediscovery of the Roman settlement.

Augusta Raurica is the best-preserved Roman city north of the Alps that has not been built-over in medieval or modern times.