Timgad description and photos - Algeria (Topic)

Timgad description and photos - Algeria. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Timgad.

Photo and description

The Roman city of Tamugadi (formerly called Timgad) is located on a high plateau north of Ores in northeastern Algeria. It is one of the best-preserved and meticulously excavated and studied ancient cities in North Africa. Founded as a colony by Marcian Ulpius Trajan Tamugadi around 100 AD, the town was a paramilitary town of strategic importance for the defense of Numidia. Located at the intersection of six roads, Timgad was one of the outposts of the Roman Empire in Africa, had the status of a Roman city.

The population of Tamugadi was about 10,000-15,000 people and mainly consisted of former Roman soldiers who received land after long years of service. It had a theater with 3,500 seats, 4 baths, a public library, and a forum. The development was a typical Roman street layout in squares. The prosperity of the city was ensured by the rich fertile soil of this area, which contributed to the rapid growth of the population and its increase to 50 thousand, in connection with which, the buildings went beyond the city limits and represented chaotic quarters.

Climate change, drying up of rivers became one of the reasons for the decline of the city. In the late 4th century, it became the seat of the Bishop Optatus, an ardent supporter of the heretical Christian movement known as Donatism. In 535, Timgad came under the rule of the Byzantines, but was destroyed by the Berbers in the early 7th century.

The sands of the desert and remoteness from busy roads and cities have well preserved the architecture of Timgad. Triumphal arch dedicated to Trajan, baths with furnace cellars and aqueducts, the main street of the city of Decumanos, paved with stone slabs, the remains of the walls of houses, the columns of the temple of the three gods, the basilica near the forum and the library - all this gives a complete picture of what the city looked like in its heyday. Of particular interest is the market with preserved stalls richly decorated with carvings and stucco moldings. The Timgada amphitheater has undergone the least destruction and is still used for its intended purpose.

The architectural ensemble in 1982 was included in the list of objects protected by UNESCO.

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Topic: Timgad description and photos - Algeria.