Dougga in the spring

Laura's lovely shot of ruins in Dougga, surrounded by wild flowers. She visted briefly from Algiers, to recover from a stressful life there.

Dougga is situated in the mountains inland of Tunisia, at about 550 metres above sea level, in an area that was densely populated by the Numidians, and the city served as one of the capitals of Massinissa, an Roman ally, and one of the contenders to Carthage. The location was ideal, as it was fairly close to the heartland of the Carthagian country, and with the fall of the fightings between Carthage and Numidia, Dougga was turned into a regional administrative centre, a role the city lost with the decline of the Roman empire, and today not many people live around here. There probably were less than 10,000 inhabitants at its height, and the city was deserted in the 5th century, and since then there have only been a village here.

The whole area is about 3 sq km, and among the most important ruins are the Capitol with a peristyle in very good condition. The theatre, not one of the biggest, is restored. The Libyco-Punic mausoleum to the south is one of very few ruins from the time before the Romans. It dates back to 3rd century BC.