Djemila UNESCO site, Algeria

 Djemila UNESCO site.

We had a planned stop at a resturant for lunch as everything else was closed for Friday prayers. As soon as the last mosque's prayers were finished we headed to the entrance to the Roman city known as Cuicul.

First stop on site was teh museum. It display many of the findings from digs but it is most famous for the range and quality of the mosaics that have been lifted from excavated villas and reset on the internal walls of the musuem. Here is a range...

 

A mosaic from the House of Bacchus. 

A model of the site, starting with the northern and oldest part with the forum, courthouse and other essential buildings and the oldest section at the bottom of the photo. Then the next section above it, the theatre to the top left and houses and villas to the top right hand corner.

It was started on a virgin site where no former settlement had been built. It was started in the 1st century AD as a settlement for retired Romn soldiers. It is a hilly triangular site with rivers on two sides that meet towards the north of the city. 

The Christian Basilica. 

Some of the columns and wallks of surviving structures. 

The main temple.

A gatehouse and arch over one of the approaches to the city centre. 

Opus Africano, a type of contruction used in the srea using large blocks for stength with infill of alternate layers of small stones and tiles to give some flexibility to withstand destruction during earthquakes. earthquakes

The Arch of Caracalla, unfortunately with the sun in the wrong place to see the delicate features.  

The plain side of the arch but with the afternoon sun shining on it.