We now drive to the S. from the S.E. angle of the camp, where carriages usually wait, to the Village. At the Mairie, mainly built with the stones of the Septizonium, a nymphæum or fountain, we find the museum attendant (fee ½ fr.), who if desired will show also the town-hill (fee).
The small Musée Municipal, near the church, comprises, under a shed, some mediocre statues from the temple of Æsculapius and splendid *Mosaics found in 1905 (one with an inscription by a Greek artist), missiles, etc. The garden contains architectural fragments, inscriptions, etc.
A road leads from the S. end of the village to the Town Hill, where excavators have not as yet discovered even the forum.
Near the (¼ hr.) Aïn-Drinn, which now supplies the village with drinking-water, are the almost unrecognizable remains of the Temple of Neptune. From this point we walk to the N.E. past the ruins of the Aqueduct and the foundations of four Dwelling Houses to (10 min.) the chief temples.
The *Temple of Æsculapius, at the W. end of the temple area, a curiously planned edifice dating from the time of Marcus Aurelius, consists of a cella, well-preserved in its foundations, with a large semicircular niche for the statues of Æsculapius and Salus (or Hygiea), and of a semicircular terrace (concave inwards), where a square basement in front bore a Doric portico, which collapsed in 1852. In front of the flight of six steps lie remains of the architrave, bearing the dedicatory inscription of the temple. Colonnades connected the temple with two semicircular projections, flanking the terrace, on which stood the ædiculæ or chapels of Jupiter Valens and Silvanus. Behind the cella are vestiges of the Thermae connected with the temple.
A straight ancient road leads to the S.E. from the temple of Æsculapius to the capitol, the distinctive feature of every Roman colony. On the left lie the substructures of Chapels dedicated to eight different gods (about 200 A. D.), all rectangular and each with its niche, usually rounded.
The *Capitol, the largest temple of Lambæsis, dedicated to the cult of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, adjoins the W. wall of the ancient temple-court, a quadrangle of 66 by 60 yds., of whose colonnades eight columns only survive. A flight of twenty steps, most of which also have disappeared, ascended to the temple portico, with eight Corinthian columns in front and four at the back. The cella, still fairly preserved, 22½ by 12¼ yds., consists, exceptionally, of only two chambers, separated by a partition, with square niches for the sacred images. On the temple steps lie fragments of the dedicatory inscription of the ‘Respublica Lambæsis’.
The capitol is adjoined on the E. by the court of a third Temple, 82 by 38 yds.
We now follow the road on the hill to the E., leaving on the left the so-called Bains des Chasseurs, and in 3 min. reach the ruins of a Triumphal Arch with three gateways, on the old road to Verecunda (p. [289]), and 3 min. farther a smaller Archway, to which point carriages should be ordered. We then drive back to the plain, to the N.W., by the Bertouli road, skirting the town-hill.
