Richborough Castle fighting moved north, Rutupiae became an increasingly large civilian settlement. There were temples, an amphitheatre (visible as a hummock in the grass 5 minutes walk from the main site), and a "mansio" (first built in 100, it was a building that went through several phases, being a hotel for visiting officials, bath house and administration building). As a port, the town always competed with Portus Dubris (modern Dover), about south along the coast. However, Richborough was widely regarded throughout the Roman Empire for the quality of its oysters. They are mentioned as on a par with those from the Italian
Dubris smaller bases in Britannia itself, at Rutupiae and Dubris. Two lighthouses, each called the Pharos, were built soon after the conquest. Proposals of their date range from 50 (only seven years after the invasion of 43), 80 or (since the building includes tiles identical to the mansio in the town built at that date) c. 138, though the general consensus is for a 1st-century AD date. They were sited on the two heights (Eastern Heights and Western Heights) and modelled on the one built for Caligula's aborted invasion at Boulogne. The one on the Eastern Heights still stands in the