Timgad

Timgad in Algeria was founded by the emperor Trajan in 100 AD as a colony of Roman veterans. It is most famous in our time from aerial images like this one, which show its marvelously preserved street grid. The Latin name was Marciana Traiana Thamugadi, that is the town of Trajan and Marciana (his sister) at Thamagudi, the Berber name of the place. It was placed to help defend the Roman coastal zone against attacks from Berbers in the interior.

From Google Earth, showing the whole of the original town. The projection to the lower left is the Capitol, the Temple of Jupiter.

Street views.

Ground level views of the ruins.

The arch of Trajan.

In the third century AD Timgad became a center of Christianity, and in the fourth century it was one of the centers of the Donatist sect. This is an overhead view of the Donatist cathedral.

The well in the cathedral courtyard.

A neighborhood aqueduct.

There is a large cemetery, from which these monuments came. European scholars began visiting the site in the 1760s, and there were extensive excavations in from the 1880s down to WW II.

Bits of sculpture photographed in the 1920s.

Objects in the adjacent museum, including a stela with a representation of a funeral meal.

Truly an amazing place.