Timgad, Algeria : a hidden gem for history lovers.

There are many stunning and vast Roman ruins scattered over north Africa. I had heard about Leptis Magna in Libya and the sad story of destruction of Palmyra by ISIS. I have been to Volubilis in Morocco and couple of ruins in Tunisia too. But before I started my research on Alegria I have not heard of Timgad, a vast site which was perfectly built on a grid fashion.

I had posted some photos from the unbelievably stunning Tasilli n'ajjer desert and I hope these photos and the story of Timgad would generate more interest to visit the beautiful country of Algeria.

As mentioned in the last post all the logistical details are covered at length in the TripAdvisor Algeria forum to help future travellers. I'm truly grateful to Fancy Yellow and particularly our guide Billel who showed us around. In addition to Timgad we also visited Djemila and Cherchel ruins, which are also good. The museum at Djemial was particularly good, but form the sheer vastness Timagd was way better. On the day we visited there were no foreign tourists and less than ten local tourists letting us enjoy it peacefully.

If you are a history buff like me then hopefully you'd like the background story of Timgad that I have narrated below.

In 1763 a well-travelled Scotsman called James Bruce was appointed the Consul of Algiers by the British government. Like many explores he was a mad man and unsuitable for office job. He had a massive fight with government in 1765 and resigned his post.

But instead of returning to the cold Scottish Highlands, he decided to go looking for the Holy Grail of the Victorian explorers: The Origin of the Blue Nile. But before doing that he decided to travel in the north Africa with an Italian painter, Luigi Balugani.

Bruce had heard vague stories of some tall columns and an arch somewhere in Algeria. The locals referred to that place as “Peak”. On 12th December 1765 Bruce and Balugani reached the site of Timgad. All they could see were the top sections of an arch and top of two columns sticking out of the sand.

Sahara had swallowed the largest Roman settlement ever built in North Africa—the ancient city of Thamugadi, now called Timgad.

Bruce was confident that he had found the lost city of Emperor Trazan. But when Bruce finally returned to London, nobody believed him. Bruce did not give up. He spent his retirement writing about his travels in Africa and in 1790 published a five-volume book titled Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile.

At this point, the real money was on the source of Nile and sub Saharan Africa exploration and Timgad was forgotten. More than a century passed.

Then came Robert Lampard Playfair, another Scotsman, renowned diplomat who had worked in many places in Africa. Lampard was appointed the Consul of Algeria in 1875 and he took great interest in Bruce’s book. He had the political and financial backing. He was able to visit and provide much more details of the ruins and published a book in 1877 titled “Travels on the footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis.” Archaeologists became interested. In 1881 the French started formal excavation and more and more of it was discovered.

The sheer scale of Timgad made it known as “Pompei of Africa”. Sadly the recent past of Algeria has been marred with violence leading to neglect of many of its ancient treasures. Algeria is not a poor country at all. It’s absolutely loaded with petroleum. Money is not an issue; the issue is security. Tourism had practically stopped. It has picked up again but, on the day, we visited Timgad there were no foreign tourists apart from a few Russian diplomats, heavily guarded by the military. And possibly ten local tourists.

Recently Italian authority had put a cap of Twenty Thousand daily visitors max for Pompeii. You know which site I liked more.
The “Colonia Marciana Traiana” Thamugadi was founded in 100 A.D. by Trajan. He dedicated this to the memory of his mother Marcia, eldest sister Ulpia Marciana, and father Marcus Ulpius Traianus.

Originally the plan was to provide an encampment for the 3rd Augustan Legion. The history of the 3rd Augustan Legion is fascinating. Founded by emperor Augustus, comprising of about 20000 men, including the auxiliaries, it was the backbone of Roman rule in north Africa for more than three centuries. Not only suppressing rebellions, the legion was crucial for building roads, aqueducts, and fortresses making North Africa look more and more like a Roman colony.
Timgad was built to garrison the soldiers only, but it rapidly grew. It is a perfect example of the geometric “grid” system. It has a perfectly square shape, with several major intersections inside the city allowing traffic to flow smoothly. Wheat was easy to grow locally and Timgad became a granary for the empire. The Augustan legion was shifted to nearby Lambesis.

The city reached its height under the reign of the “African Emperor” Septimius Severus, who hailed from nearby Leptis Magna, Libya and had a dark complexion. Nowadays he is considered as the Black Emperor of Rome.

He is not as well-known as the other Emperors but in my opinion, he was the most effective Commander among all the Emperors. You can say how about Julius Caesar? Well, Julius was not an emperor and he lost to Asterix and Obelix!

He almost subjugated the Bravehearts. but sadly the rain and cold of Britain was too much for him. He died not under the hot African sun but on a cold gloomy British morning at York.

Nothing remains forever other than the sands of time. The mighty Rome disintegrated. Germanic tribes and Vandals ransacked Timgad repeatedly. By Sixth Century the city was in ruins and eventually it was abandoned. Sands of Sahara moved in and swallowed the whole city. It remained buried for more than a thousand years.

That was a great thing to happen to the archaeologists. The sands of Sahara preserved Timgad and it is one of the best-preserved ruins. I had seen an inscription which truly looks like it was crafted yesterday.

We roamed through the abandoned streets, the rooms, the temples, the market, bath houses and of course the toilets. One Latin inscription truly captures the vivacity of Roman life in Timgad. It reads “Venari, lavari, ludere, ridere, occ est vivere” meaning “Hunting, bathing, playing, laughing—that’s living!”.

The adjoining museum also had a good collection of artefacts. Here we met Harry and Anakin.

Many thanks to our amazing guide Billel from Fancy Yellow who has a genuine passion for history and made Timgad come alive with his storytelling and his ingenious props.

We also visited a very ancient Numidian mausoleum on the way.