Photos

African landscape with ancient mausoleum

Dougga or Thugga (Arabic: دقة‎) is a Roman ruin in northern Tunisia located on a 65 hectare site.

The Punic-Libyan Mausoleum

This mausoleum is one of the very rare examples of royal Numidian architecture. There is another in Sabratha in Libya. This tomb is 21 metres tall and was built in the 2nd century BCE. An inscription that has been preserved from the tomb had been understood as an indication that the tomb was dedicated to Atban, the son of Iepmatath and Palu. In 1842, Sir Thomas Read, the British consul in Tunis seriously damaged the monument while removing this inscription. It has only recently been established that the inscription was originally located on one side of a fake window on the podium. According to the most recent research, the names cited in the inscription are only those of its architect and of representatives of the different professions involved in its construction. The monument was built by the inhabitants of the city for a Numidian prince; some authors believe that it was intended for Massinissa. Another bilingual Libyan and Punic inscription which is now held at the British Museum made it possible to decode the Libyan characters.
The tomb is accessed via a pedestal with five steps. On the northern side of the podium (the lowest of three levels in the monument), there is an opening to the funeral chamber that is closed with a stone slab. The other sides are decorated with fake windows and four Aeolic pilasters. The second level is made up of a temple-like colonnade (naiskos); the columns on each side are Ionic. The third level is the most richly decorated of all: in addition to pilasters similar to those on the lowest level, it is capped with a pyramid. Some elements of carved stone have also survived.

Dougga

UNESCO qualified Dougga as a World Heritage Site in 1997, believing that it represents “the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa”. The site, which lies in the middle of the countryside, has been protected from the encroachment of modern urbanisation, in contrast, for example, to Carthage, which has been pillaged and rebuilt on numerous occasions.
Dougga, or Thugga, is undoubtedly the most prestigious of Tunisia’s archaeological sites. Several factors contribute to its standing on the Tunisian archaeological scene: its location on a spur dominating the rich Mejerdah valley (Thugga, in the Libyc language means green), the size of the site extending over several dozen hectares and covering several historical eras, the vegetation – in particular the many centuries old olive grove surrounding it - and of course, the excellent state of conservation of most of its monuments, some of which, such as the capitol or the theatre, were “restored to their upright position” during a campaign undertaken just after the first world war by prisoners of war.Therefore, from the “dolmens” to the Byzantine fortifications, all the stages in the history of ancient Africa are illustrated on the site by outstanding monuments, buildings that figure amongst the most elegant and elaborate of the Mediterranean basin, such as the capitol, the theatre, the Lybico-Punic mausoleum, or the superb patrician villas. (Source: patrimoinedetunisie.com & wikipedia )