About halfway between this road and the highroad we pass the ruins of a building once erroneously called the Palais du Légat, and those of Latrinae. On the ancient Via Septimiana (p. [287]), about a hundred yards farther, rises the *Arch of Septimius Severus, with its three passages, bereft of its columns and attica.
The High Road ascends past the remains (on the left) of a Roman Burial Ground, with the substructures of an Early Christian Chapel, under the ciborium altar of which are two martyrs’ tombs. After a long bend to the N. it reaches (9 M. from Batna) Markouna (about 4260 ft.), a country-house surrounded by fruit-trees, cypresses, and pines, not far from the site of the little Roman town of Verecunda.
Beyond Markouna, just before the new road to Medina (and Biskra; see p. [278]) diverges, rises the Arch of Marcus Aurelius (172 A. D.). A little way to the S.W., on the old Roman road coming from the town-hill of Lambæsis, stands another Archway, dedicated to the same emperor in 162.
As the road now descends to the N.E. into the dreary valley of the Oued Mérien, we obtain on the right, beyond the 16th kilomètre-stone (10 M.), a fine view of the crest of the Kef Mahmel (p. [278]), which is snow-clad in winter. Beyond the 24th kilomètre-stone (15 M.) we overlook a great part of the Aurès Mts. with Jebel Chelia (p. [278]). On the left is Jebel Taguertine (4511 ft.).
After the 27th kilomètre-stone (17 M.) we sight, far to the S.E., at the foot of the spurs of the Aurès, the ruins of Timgad, where the two tall columns of the capitol gradually grow more conspicuous. The road to (23½ M. from Batna) Timgad, which diverges to the right beyond the 35th kilomètre-stone (21½ M.), crosses the Oued Mérien and ends on the N. side of the ruins.
Timgad.—Hotel. Hôtel Meille, 4 min. to the N. of the ruins, opposite the Berber market (Thurs.), with a fine view of the Aurès Mts., R. 3–4, B. 1–1½, déj. 3½, D. 4 fr., plain but well spoken of.
The Ruins may be visited at any time. The chief sights, named in the text in heavy type, may be cursorily seen within 2–3 hrs. For closer study A. Ballu’s Guide Illustré de Timgad (at book-shops 2½, 3½ fr. at the Agence, p. [291], where photographs and picture post-cards also are sold) is valuable. Information as to recent excavations may be obtained from the inspector M. Barry.—Comp, also ‘Carthage, Timgad, Tébessa’, by R. Cagnat (Paris, 1909).
Timgad (3520 ft.), known by the Berber name of Thamugadi in the late-Roman period and one of the most thriving towns in the E. Algerian highlands, dates from 100 A. D., when the legate P. Munatius Gallus, commander of the Third Legion (p. [286]), was ordered by Trajan to found the Colonia Marciana Trajana Thamugadi, probably about the same time as Lambæsis, as the key of the Fount Ksantina (p. [296]). The town saw its prime in the second half of the 2nd and in the 3rd cent., but in the 4th cent., like Bagai (p. [273]), it was a centre of the Donatist movement and suffered severely in the wars of the period. After fruitless attempts by the Vandals to revive it, Thamugadi was destroyed by the hostile Berber tribes of the Aurès Mts. in 535. Having been finally abandoned at the close of the Byzantine domination, the ruins of the town, with the exception of Trajan’s Arch, were gradually buried under the deposits of torrents, and for twelve centuries the place was consigned to complete oblivion.
The excavations begun by the French government in 1880, and recently conducted by the architect A. Ballu, have brought to light the most important parts of the town, including the Forum, two Markets, the Capitol, and no less than eleven Thermæ. While the private houses are mostly unpretending and very inferior to those of Pompeii, the public buildings afford most striking evidence of the ancient prosperity of this remote Roman provincial town.