Sunday, November 13, 2011

Tunisia : Dougga Postcard

Before the Roman annexation of Numidia, the town of Thugga, built on an elevated site overlooking a fertile plain, was the capital of an important Libyco-Punic state. It flourished under Roman and Byzantine rule, but declined in the Islamic period. The impressive ruins that are visible today give some idea of the resources of a small Roman town on the fringes of the empire.
The archaeological site covers an area of approximately 75 ha. These ruins of a complete city with all its components are a testimony to more than 17 centuries of history.

They are an outstanding example illustrating the synthesis between different cultures: Numidian, Punic, Hellenistic, and Roman. The Roman monuments were integrated within the urban fabric, essentially Numidian. Despite its relative unimportance in the administrative structure of the Roman province of Africa, Dougga possesses a remarkable group of public buildings, dating for the most part from the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. Dougga is considered the best preserved example of an Africo-Roman town in North Africa. As such, it is an exceptional illustration of what daily life was like in Antiquity.

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