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Around 100 A. D. the Roman Emperor Trajan built a city at the edge of the desert near the Aures mountains in what is now Algeria, North Africa. Ostensibly, the city was to help house the retired soldiers of Trajan's legions and it had a projected population of around 15,000. It was to these specifications that the city was originally built. Very soon, however, the city grew beyond its original confines and developed in a less strictly organized manner outside the original perimeters. The plan of Timgad follows the model of a Roman military camp or castrum; square shaped, grid-planned, with two main streets called the decumanus (east-west direction) and cardo (north-south direction). In the case of Timgad, the cardo only goes as far as meeting up with the decumanus (instead of continuing through) and it is at this intersection that one finds the forum or central square of Timgad. Just off the forum are the theater, public toilets, and other civic and religious institutional buildings such as the basilica.

One of Timgad's most distinctive architectural features is the triumphal arch of Trajan situated at the south end of the decumanus. The decumanus, with its rows of columns running up either side, offers a dramatic approach to the monumental arch. Just outside the arch are found the ruins of the temple of Jupiter Capitolium and a small apsidal structure that had market stalls (called the 'Market of Sertius'). Two of the five fluted, Corinthian columns of the temple facade still stand. Raised on a high masonry pedestal, as was common for Roman temples, it would have also had a monumental staircase leading up to it. The market stalls are distinctive for the deorative relief sculptures on the brackets that divide the stalls and their curving counters.

In attempts to recreate the luxuries and social institutions of Rome, bath complexed were also found both within and outside the city walls.

Image Information	Image Link
Timgad: Old air view of site.	Image.
Timgad: Diagram of site.	Image.
Timgad: View from the south with columns of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolium and the triumphal arch of Trajan.	Image.
Timgad: Decumanus leading to arch of Trajan.	Image.
Timgad: Triumphal Arch.	Image.
Timgad: Triumphal arch details.	Image.
Timgad: End of Forum with Trajan's arch.	Image.
Timgad: Public bathrooms off of forum.	Image.
Timgad: Detail of Dolphin armrest public toilet.	Image.
Timgad: Cardo.	Image.
Timgad: Apsidal market stalls with insulae; Arch of Trajan in background.	Image.
Timgad: Market stalls.	Image.
Timgad: Market stalls.	Image.
Timgad: Details market stall brackets.	Image.
Timgad: Temple of Jupiter Capitolium.	Image.
Timgad: Temple of Jupiter Capitolium.	Image.
Timgad: Temple of Jupiter Capitolium.	Image.
Timgad: Theater.	Image.
Timgad: Inscription.	Image.

© All images copyright Allan Langdale.

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