Timgad

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Timgad

Timgad (Arabic ??????, called Thamugas or Thamugadi by the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
) was a Roman colonial town in North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
founded by the Emperor Trajan

Trajan

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperors who reigned from 98 until his death in 117. Born Marcus Ulpius Traianus into a nonpatrician family in the Hispania Baetica province , Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian, serving as a general in the Roman army along the Limes G...
around 100. The full name of the town was Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi. Trajan commemorated the city after his mother Marcia

Marcia (mother of Trajan)

Marcia was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century in the Roman Empire and the mother of the Roman emperor Trajan....
, father Marcus Ulpius Traianus

Marcus Ulpius Traianus (senator)

Marcus Ulpius Traianus Maior was a Ancient Rome senator who lived in the 1st century....
and his eldest sister Ulpia Marciana

Ulpia Marciana

Ulpia Marciana was the beloved elder sister of Roman Emperor Trajan. She was the eldest child born to Roman woman Marcia and the Hispania senator Marcus Ulpius Traianus ....
. The ruins are noteworthy for being one of the best extant examples of the grid plan

Grid plan

The grid plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at Angle#Types of angless to each other, forming a wikt:grid. In the context of the culture of Ancient Greece the grid plan is called Hippodamian plan....
as used in Roman city planning.

The ruins of the town are located in modern-day Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
, about 35 km from the town of Batna

Batna City

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Timgad (Arabic ??????, called Thamugas or Thamugadi by the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
) was a Roman colonial town in North Africa

North Africa

Trajan

Marcia (mother of Trajan)

Marcia was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century in the Roman Empire and the mother of the Roman emperor Trajan....
, father Marcus Ulpius Traianus

Marcus Ulpius Traianus (senator)

Marcus Ulpius Traianus Maior was a Ancient Rome senator who lived in the 1st century....
and his eldest sister Ulpia Marciana

Ulpia Marciana

Grid plan

Algeria

Batna City

Batna is the main city of Batna Province, Algeria. With a population of 285.800 it is the fifth largest city in Algeria. It is also one of the principal cities of the Chaoui area and is considered the capital of the Aures....
. The city was founded ex nihilo
Ex nihilo

The Latin phrase ex nihilo means "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing"....
as a military colony, primarily as a bastion against the Berbers in the nearby Aures Mountains

Aurès Mountains

The Aur?s refers to an Amazigh language-speaking region in East Algeria, as well as an extension of the Atlas Mountains that lies to the east of the Saharan Atlas in eastern Algeria and northwestern Tunisia....
. It was originally populated largely by Parthia

Parthia

Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
n veterans of the Roman army

Roman army

The Roman Army was employed by the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, as part of the Roman military. Its most important infantry constituent for much of its history was the Roman legion....
who were granted lands in return for years in service.

Located at the intersection of six roads, the city was walled but not fortified. Originally designed for a population of around 15,000, the city quickly outgrew its original specifications and spilled beyond the orthogonal grid in a more loosely-organized fashion.

The original Roman grid plan is magnificently visible in the orthogonal design, highlighted by the decumanus maximus
Decumanus Maximus

In Roman city planning, a decumanus was an east-west-oriented road in a ancient Rome city, castra , or colonia . The main decumanus was the Decumanus Maximus, which normally connected the Porta Praetoria to the Porta Decumana ....
and the cardo lined by a partially-restored Corinthian

Corinthian order

The Corinthian order is one of the Classical orders of Greece and Rome architecture, characterized by a slender Fluting column and an ornate capital decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls....
colonnade. The cardo does not proceed completely through the town but instead terminates in a forum at the intersection with the decumanus.

At the west end of the decumanus rises a 12 m high triumphal arch

Triumphal arch

A triumphal arch is a structure in the shape of a monumental arch, in theory built to celebrate a victory in war, actually used to celebrate a ruler....
, called Trajan's Arch, which was partially restored in 1900. The arch is principally of sandstone, and is of Corinthian order with three arches, the central one being 11' wide. The arch is also known as the Timgad Arch.

A 3,500-seat theater is in good condition and is used for contemporary productions. The other key buildings include four thermae

Thermae

The terms balnea or thermae were the words the Ancient Rome used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization....
, a library, and basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
.

The Capitoline Temple is dedicated to Jupiter and is approximately the same dimensions as the Pantheon

Pantheon, Rome

The Pantheon is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt circa 126 AD during Hadrian's reign....
in Rome. Nearby the capitol is a square church with a circular apse dating from the 7th Century AD. Southeast of the city is a large Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
citadel built in the later days of the city.

Roman Arch of Trajan At Thamugadi (timgad), Algeria 04966r

The city enjoyed a peaceful existence for the first several hundred years and became a center of Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
activity starting in the 3rd Century, and a Donatist

Donatist

The Donatists were followers of a belief considered a schism by the broader churches of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church tradition, and most particularly within the context of the religious milieu of the provinces of Roman North Africa in Late Antiquity....
center in the 4th Century.

In the 5th Century, the city was sacked by the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Goths Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under Clovis I....
before falling into decline. In 535 Byzantine general Solomon found the city when he came to occupy it. In the following century, the city was briefly repopulated as a primarily Christian city before being sacked by Berbers in the 7th Century and being abandoned. The city disappeared from history until its excavation in 1881.

At the time of its founding, the area surrounding the city was a fertile agricultural area, about 1000 meters above sea level. The encroachment of the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe....
on the ruins was ironically the principal reason why the town is so well preserved. Because no new settlements were founded on the site after the 7th Century, the town was partially preserved under sand up to a depth of approximately one meter until it was excavated.

Timgad was inscribed as a World Heritage Site

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 Sovereign state which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term....
by UNESCO

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
in 1982.

External links

with index of photographs.

Timgad

External links

See also