The oldest map of Dacia (Tabula Peutingeriana, 2nd-3rd centuries) places it between Noviodunum (Isaccea) and Histria close to the town Ad Stoma, approximately on the site of the above-mentioned fortification; as there is no other evidence, we take for granted the metaphor of the poet, generally well informed, adding that by "Delta's gate" the Romans had a base for the Lower Danube fleet.

     The fact that the life roots at Tulcea are deeper is proved by the traces of the Hallstatt settlements (11th-7th centuries BC) on the Dealul Taberei Hill; "lowered", according to the Roman habit, closer to the access ways, the fortification was consolidated in the 2nd-3rd centuries, ruled by the Byzantines (8th-9th centuries), used by the Genoese (10th-13th centuries), engulfed in the pre-feudal indigenous formation ruled by Balica, by Dobrotici (hence, probably, the name of Dobrogea), and, starting 1390, by `Mircea cel Batran` "... by the will of God mastering and ruling ... on the either side all over the Danube down to the big sea and master of the city of Darstor".

     Starting 1416, the Ottomans controlled Dobrogea, the locality became Hora-Tepe (The Hora / round dance/ of the hills, seven of them, as the natives say, probably thinking of Rome) or Tulcea (there was a governor, Tula-bey), appears in 1595 in accounts by Pado Giorgici, it is mentioned by Evila Celebi (1650), Matteo Gondola (1674), by La Mottraye, who sees it in 1711 as "... a village placed on a high place and guarded by small fortification with seven towers"; it was also called the Mill City - "On a coast hill, there appears a most pleasant sight: it is a host of mills, hurrying, all of them, a if vying to finish the job trhe soonest", wrote Boucher de Perthes (Voyages á Constantinopole, Paris, 1853).

     As early as 1848, the German Ungewiter mentioned "a small shipward for 300 t river boats"; it got final contours after the Independence war (1877-1878).

     Most of the Delta adventures start today in Tulcea !