Timgad
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- Timgad was the last Roman colony in Africa founded as a settlement of Roman citizens, most of them former soldiers.
- Its Latin name honoured Trajan's mother Marcia, his sister Ulpia Marciana and his father Marcus Ulpius Traianus.
- The non-Latin part of the name, Thamugadi, is the Berber name of the site, explained as the plural of a word meaning 'peak' or 'summit'.
- The public library was identified only in 1906, when an inscription naming its benefactor came to light; estimates suggest it held several thousand scrolls.
- The theatre's seating bowl measures about 63 metres across; no amphitheatre has ever been found in the town.
- In the late 4th century Timgad's bishop Optatus became one of the leading spokesmen of the Donatist movement.
- The Byzantine fort of 539 was built partly with Latin inscriptions stripped from the city's forum.
- The porticoes of the Capitoline temple were restored between 364 and 367 at the expense of a local notable, Aelius Iulianus.
- A chapel dedication of 645 shows that organised Christian life still continued at Timgad in the 7th century.
Why it is worth it
Timgad is a complete Roman town laid out on a high plateau at the foot of the Aurès Mountains in north-eastern Algeria. Its paved streets cross at right angles in a grid so regular that, from above, the ruins read like a city plan drawn on the ground, and it is often called the Pompeii of North Africa.
The colony was founded in about 100 AD by the emperor Trajan, who had it built by the Third Legion Augusta under the legate Lucius Munatius Gallus as a settlement for veterans and a strongpoint on the edge of the Aurès. Its official name, Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi, honoured members of the emperor's family. The original town was a square of about 12 hectares divided into roughly 132 equal blocks around the crossing of the decumanus and cardo, but prosperity soon pushed it far beyond the walls, to more than 90 hectares. The ruins include a theatre for about 3,500 spectators, the forum, a Capitoline temple built outside the first grid, numerous public baths, the market of Sertius paid for by a rich merchant under the Severan emperors, and a public library founded with a bequest of 400,000 sesterces from the senator Marcus Julius Quintianus Flavius Rogatianus. The best-known monument is the triple-arched gateway called the Arch of Trajan, which, despite its name, dates from the late second century.
In the Christian period Timgad was a stronghold of the Donatist church. Vandal raids in the fifth century began its decline; in 539 the Byzantine general Solomon built a fort beside the ruined city, and after the Arab conquest the town was finally abandoned. The Scottish traveller James Bruce described the ruins in 1765, French archaeologists excavated them from 1881 until 1960, and the site was inscribed by UNESCO in 1982.
Getting there
Timgad lies at about 1,040 m in Batna Province, roughly 35 km east of the city of Batna and about 21 km from the Roman legionary camp of Lambaesis at Tazoult. The nearest airport is Batna Mostefa Ben Boulaid Airport (BLJ), about 33 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Timgad was a Roman city in the Aurès Mountains of Algeria. It was founded by the Roman Emperor Trajan around 100 AD. The full name of the city was Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi. Emperor Trajan named the city in commemoration of his mother Marcia, eldest sister Ulpia Marciana, and father Marcus Ulpius Traianus.
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