The actual distance is some fifty miles, and the road runs delightfully along the coast all the time. The way is bordered by endless vegetable gardens, for it is along this part of the coast that all the primeurs are grown for the Paris markets.
Castiglione is a pretty little village on the sea coast, as is also Berard, but as in the case of Laperouse they must be imagined in the summer full of holiday-making Algerians. A little beyond Berard can be seen a strange-looking object on the top of the hill, resembling a very large beehive. It is in reality a mausoleum known as the Tombeau de la Chrétienne. To visit this it will be necessary to leave the car and climb up a steep path some six hundred feet above the sea. On reaching the pyramid one is struck with a certain similarity with its cousins in Egypt and, in fact, there is reason in this resemblance. One hundred and twenty feet high, with a diameter of one hundred and eighty feet, it is composed of great blocks of stone rising in tiers, and is said to have been built by Juba II. Juba II, it will be remembered, was the son of Juba I, defeated by Cæsar at Thapsus in 46 B. C. The boy was taken to Rome and brought up most carefully by Octavia, Cæsar’s sister, and was ultimately married to Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. In 43 B. C., when the Roman Empire was finally established and the second triumvirate had divided the territory among its members, Octavius restored the old kingdom of Numidia, and in 30 B. C. appointed Juba II as its king.
Cæsarea, now Cherchell, became his capital, and for fifty years was the most magnificent city of North Africa. The Tombeau de la Chrétienne was constructed as the mausoleum for his wife.
There is no real evidence for this story, and many will say that the tomb is much before the time of the Romans. However, the fact remains that this edifice is quite close to the capital of Juba’s kingdom, and that there is another monument practically identical in construction near Batna, in the department of Constantine, which is known as the tomb of Syphax, another Numidian king, and that they both have a certain resemblance to the Pyramid of Cheops.
The road continues along the seacoast, delighting the eye by the contrast of the sapphire blue of the Mediterranean lapping the deep red rocks fringed with brilliant green scrub. Eucalyptus woods are passed until the road runs down to the little fishing-village of Tipaza. The Hotel du Rivage is an excellent inn nestling against the red cliffs, while the garden runs down to the miniature port, little changed since the days of the Phœnician traders.
If time is not of importance, a few days spent here in peace and quiet will not be regretted. Originally a Phœnician settlement, Tipaza became in the first century of our era a Roman summer resort for the rich settlers in Cæsarea (Cherchell). All that could be done to make it a center of luxury and pleasure was carried out with infinite care. The temples, the forum, the villas were designed to harmonize with the beauties of nature.
Thanks to private enterprise much of the ruins has been unearthed and one is able to reconstruct this town as it was. Sarcophagi of great beauty have been found, and mosaics in a very good state of preservation have been placed in a small museum by the hotel.
The joy of the place is not so much the actual finds, but being able to realize again the pleasant atmosphere which must have reigned among the wealthy Romans as they walked up and down the forum, which dominates the bay, or dined merrily in the villas looking down on the rippling sea.
Later, when Christianity appeared, there must have been a very fine church to the west of the original town, whence one gets a delightful view of the sandy shore which runs along toward the towering heights of the Chenoua Mountains. Here, too, the heat-oppressed Algerians come in summer to escape from the damp atmosphere of the white city, and the bathing is wonderful.
Cherchell is some twenty miles farther along the coast. The drive itself is not very interesting, and the town, after Tipaza, is disappointing. There is, however, a very excellent museum, and to those interested in the statues of Rome of that period the visit is worth while. Otherwise the return journey from Tipaza can either be made by the same way in the golden glory of the African sunset, or else inland through the vine-clad hills via Marengo and Kolea.