this sites known to be historicalls sites but also very outsdanding and beautyfull spots
timgad numidiia rosikada sirta sedrata .... all are citys builts in romain colonial age
The Roman occupation of North Africa, starting from Carthage, was made by three main axes:
- The first, follows the coast of Tunisia from north to south, then it goes towards the east and passes through Libya.
- The second, which runs from east to west, follows the line of the interior plateau, clearly behind the coastal massifs.
- The third, diagonally north-east and south-west, represents the way of penetration towards the southern border and towards the Aures by Ammaedara (Haïdra, Tunisia), Thevesti (Tebessa), Thamugadi (Timgad), and finally Lambaesis Lambaesis).
Three of these cities were the bases of the Roman legion, which occupied Ammaedara during the reign of Augustus. In the year 75, it settled in Thevesti, in 81 to Lambaesis, which later became its definitive seat before being the capital of Numidia.
Numidia is not a coastal province like Ifriqia with Carthage and Mauretania with Caesarea, but an interior province, facing the desert, anxious to defend the African provinces against the dangers that would come from the south.
Numidia is a military territory, commanded by Lambese, and will become a province independent of the Proconsular in 1986. From 126 onwards, penetration routes will help it to progress through the southern tracks, but it is narrowing towards The north: Hippo Regius (Hippone) is in Proconsullary, Igilgili (Jijel) in Setetian Mauretania.
The coast of Numidia has two ports: Rusicade (Skikda) and Chullu (Collo). The rest of Algeria forms the Mauretania Caesarean. Mauretania was governed from Caesarea (Cherchell). Its border is more southerly, far from the hills of the Hondna and the high plains of Oran, it penetrates hardly more than 100 km from the sea.
Beyond this coastal strip, Numid populations continue to follow their way of life and fight against the Roman occupation. The Roman cities in Numidia and Mauretania were established on the Roman cities in Numidia, some of which enjoyed great growth and enjoyed great fame in those ancient countries. Hippo, Cuicul, Tiddis, Thevesli, Madouros, Tipaza, Siga, Tenes, and probably the most important Roman cities, were founded along the coast on the site of the Phoenician counters.
The most important ruins of the Roman cities are to the east of Caesarean Mauretania, in the Aures and to the north of Numidia. If sedentarization took place in the time of the Phoenicians and the Numidian kingdoms, it was urbanization that would form the basis of the Roman Empire.
The number and the monumental splendor of the Roman cities revealed by the imposing ruins of Timgad, Lambese, Djemila-Cuicul, Tiddis and Tipaza testify to the role played by the African cities.
In the world, only two cities remain intact and testify to the urbanist perfection of the Roman cities: Pompeii, in Italy, buried and saved by the ashes of Vesuvius and Timgad in Algeria, buried and protected by the sand of the desert.
Timgad's methodical plan, with its regular grid, seeks to penetrate everywhere, on the rump of the Numidian city of Cuicul-Djemila, on the slope of Tiddis, above the capricious course of the Punic and Numidic city of Hippo The Royal.
The two main streets intersect at right angles. The others are parallel. Near the central crossroads, the Forum is a closed, secluded place, inaccessible to the voices, surrounded by a portico flanked by a judicial basilica. The square, decorated with statues, is the political center.
The theater is often close. In Timgad, the whole city seems to be located according to the hill, where it was possible to dig the "cavea". The amphitheater, the circus, are often located in the outlying districts or in the suburbs. In the paved streets and often bordered by porticos, one meets temples, markets, baths.
Secondary squares are used to create new architectural complexes. At the crossroads are monumental fountains or nymphaeums fed by aqueducts, which cross through tunnels the mountains, crossing the valleys by arches, bring from far away a pure and abundant water.
By visiting the Museum of Timgad, one is seized by the splendor of the mosaics where the geometric patterns and the foliage flourish in foliage of delicacy and unknown exuberance. Each city had its decorators and mosaicists.
The difference in style between these schools reveals the vitality of local workshops. No pavement in the entire Roman world can be compared to the mosaic of the harvest. No analogy, either, to the hunting mosaic of Hippo.
It may be concluded that the Romans did not import fixed models or fixed forms into Africa. They left the Africans to work in their own way, to implant their city according to their own genius, to distribute to their