TIMGAD - ALGERIA 🇩🇿

The roman ruins of Timgad are a well-guarded secret of Algeria. While the ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, Leptis Magna in Libya and Palmyra in Syria are well known, few people have ever heard of Timgad.

Timgad is known best for its well-preserved arch of Trajan, who was the emperor at the time of its foundation and indeed, it is quite a majestic sight. Located in what is now Batna province, the city was founded in 100 AD. 

Abandoned and covered by sand from the Sahara from the seventh century on, Timgad was rediscovered by Scottish explorer James Bruce in 1765. But not until the 1880s, under French rule, did a proper excavation begin.

The 10,000–15,000 inhabitants of Thamugadi lived in a classic Roman type of city, quasi-military in appearance, with all streets intersecting at right angles. That life there was comfortable is evidenced by the remains of a forum, a public library (4th Century CE), a theatre capable of holding about 4,000 people, and an exceptionally large number of public baths. It takes its name from the Berber name of the place, Thamugadi, which means “the peaks”. It was an important city in early Christianity until it was sacked by the Vandals and then part of the Byzantine empire.

In late 4th Century AD, it became the seat of the bishop Optatus, one of the most ardent supporters of Donatism, a heretical Christian movement, and the stronghold was sacked by Berbers in early 6th Century AD, toward the end of the Vandal supremacy in Africa.

#drthehistories