Our journey southwards today had us leaving Constantine at 08:00 and driving on the main highway towards Ain M’Lila and we were to have a police escort all day. We passed several large salt-flats where dehydration ponds were being used for the production of salt. At one of the larger salt-lakes called Sepkret Ez-Zemoul, we stopped and attempted to photograph the many hundreds of flamingos wading in the shallows presumably searching for crustaceans. The flamingos were too distant to get any shots of value.
We then left the highway and followed a minor road until reaching our first main tourist site for the day at Medracen. Medracen (also spelled Medghassen) is a royal mausoleum-temple of the Berber Numidian Kings built in the fourth century BC or possibly even earlier, making it the oldest monument in Algeria. The archeological mystery is that nobody is quite sure for whom the temple was built although it’s assumed to be for King Medghassen.
This circular mausoleum is 18.5 m high and 60 m in diameter and composed of a vast number of cut, massive sandstone blocks laid over a rubble core. The roof is conical with the blocks set in such a way as to form eaves. The stonework shows extraordinary accuracy in the cutting and placement of the blocks. There was evidence that some blocks were linked with lead ‘hinges’.
The perimeter base is adorned with sixty equally spaced columns topped with Doric capitals.
There is a false door and a real, hidden entrance that leads via a corridor to a now empty burial chamber. Access is denied to visiting tourists.
This site features a marathon each year with the 42.195 km run starting and finishing at the mausoleum.
We then drove a further 50 km south to the village of Timgad which was a Roman city in the Aurès Mountains.
Timgad was founded as a military colony by the Roman Emperor Trajan in around 100 AD. It has often been referred to as the Pompeii of Africa and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.
We commenced our visit to this vast site by walking southwards up the Cardo Maximus. This main street is paved with large rectangular limestone slabs and in places there is clear evidence of the limestone being worn by wagon wheels leaving parallel tracks about 1.5 m apart.
On our wanderings up Cardo Maximus we saw a sun dial, grain measuring bowls, a marble game site, bath houses and open-air communal toilets.
An unexpected finding was a library and we were informed that this is the only known Roman library in Algeria.
Similarly unusual, is to find Roman graffiti. Presumably, a soldier had written by scratching on a large slab ‘Hunting, Bathing, Playing and Laughing ~This is Life’; this being translated from the Latin.
There was a large forum and two market areas, described as the old and new markets. We then spent a deal of time in the Theatre with its wonderful acoustics.
We then went through an industrial area to The Temple of Jupiter.
Our return journey took us to the Trajan Arch which has a dominant visual presence within the whole site as it is massive and still in very good condition.
The Vandals invaded the site in 430 AD and then the site was largely destroyed in the 5th century by the burning of all the timber sections, especially roofs.
The Christian Byzantine reconquest revived some activities in the city but the Arab Muslim invasion in the 7th century brought about the final ruin of Timgad.
Before leaving, we spent an hour in the Timgad Archeological Museum.
There are, as one might expect many mosaics. These were previously floor mosaics within the Roman homes and are now displayed as wall mosaics.
One particular mosaic has a very obvious crack extending from top to bottom caused by the earthquake of 1986. The four horse dawn chariot was a favourite.
Amongst the marble sculptures were several impressive pieces but the head of the Byzantine King Sarapis and the statue of Asclepius (the Roman God of Medicine) were certainly very special.
We had a late lunch near Batna where we met Ridwane’s wife, son and daughter. They were very friendly and Ridwane’s daughter, very kindly gave us stickers of the Algerian flag.
In the late afternoon we crossed the Aurès Mountains reaching a maximum altitude of 1805 m. Our descent then brought us to the gorge and the Canyons of Ghoufi. At a place called Haghith we stopped and viewed the site where on November 1st 1954 the first shots were fired at French troops, marking the start of the Algerian War of Independence. Algeria finally gained independence on the 19th March 1962.
Marked on the roadside stone wall nearby was information telling that Emperor Hadrian passed through this Ghassiri Gorge area with his 6th Legion in 145 AD. He was coming from the Sahara to suppress the Berbers. The inscription includes a Christian cross and a bugle like musical instrument.
In the base of the gorge is an extensive oasis with the surrounding hillsides being brown and barren. We stopped at a little village of Berbers who are a distinct and ancient African tribe called Chaouia. Blue eyes and blond hair are features that set them apart from other Berbers.
Beneath their village, in the valley below we could see the ruins of some ancient town and even what was once a hotel, carved into the side of the gorge.
We arrived at Biskra at close to 19:00 after another long and most interesting day discovering a little more of Algeria.
Tomorrow we venture further south to the edge of the Sahara, with our evening destination being El Oued.