Roman Ruins – Page 5 – Not Your Average Engineer

Onward from Ain Draham, we went to Bulla Regia, arguably one of the most impressive Roman sites in North Africa. Unlike most other Roman sites, it is possible to walk into complete Roman rooms, including ceilings and mosaics! Unfortunately, as it was during Ramadan, we had an even hour to see the entire site. We left our bags in the ticket office and proceeded to sprint through the sprawling site. Somehow, in spite of the time crunch, we managed to see every single site in the complex, make it out before they locked the gates, get a taxi back into town, get a louage to Le Kef, and actually get out of Jendouba before sunset. For those of you who have been to Jendouba, you know exactly why it is important to be out of Jendouba before sunset.

The gates to Bulla Regia.

This is where Giovanna said “Oh crap! This is a really big site and I only brought three rolls of film!”

Inside our first Roman room.

Those Roman carts sure made a lot of ruts in the Roman roads!

The Memmian Baths.

Local “wildlife”. Throughout the ruins there were flocks of sheep and the occasional cow grazing. Its a cheap form of grounds care and it supplements the guards’ income. Plus it makes for good pictures.

These Roman houses really are underground! This house only had part of its ceiling intact. This is the Treasure House. When excavated, a horde of coins was discovered hidden in the ruins.

By far, the most impressive house purely for the architecture, the House of the Hunt, has these very interesting and unique hexagonal “windows” in the support structure. The reasons behind this seem to be, aside from ascetics, more structural in nature. This design helps lighten the load carried by the columns and also helps deflect the weight to the columns rather than having an unsupported load in the middle of the span between columns. This house was also one of the most extensive with areas for sleeping, eating, hanging out, and other such underground activities.

One of our guides/guards. He showed us around a few of the underground villas and splashed water on the mosaics to make the colors more vivid. It probably isn’t the best for preserving the mosaics, but it made for stunning photos! We gave him a two or three Dinar tip.

This is the House of Amphitrite. When Bulla Regia was excavated a rather disturbing discovery was made in this house. The archaeologists found a skeleton tied to a chair with an iron ring around its neck inscribed “Adulterous prostitutes: hold me, because I ran away from Bulla Regia.” We didn’t observe any prostitutes in Bulla Regia the day we visited. However, the guide did show us the penis carved in relief on a rock wall indicating the direction to the old whore house. This indication of the direction to the brothel is not unique to Bulla Regia. I personally observed the same symbol at the Roman site of Mustis just north of the present-day town of Krib.

Walking through the Forum.

Outside of the Theater. I personally think that this one is much more impressive than the one at Dougga for the structural engineering that went into it. Also, its very complete and has only had minor preservation work done to the structure.

Temple of Isis.

In the belly of the Memmian Baths complex.

Giovanna decided she wanted a picture up on the baths. She saw one of the guards up there earlier so she figured it wouldn’t be hard to get up there. It wasn’t. Good thing she didn’t let her fear of heights get to her because it was a long way down!

Bye bye Bulla Regia!

As the name of the ruin, Dougga, suggests, this city was founded long before Rome’s takeover of Tunisia. The city was situated high up on a hillside above the valleys, yet another indication of non-Roman origin. From my readings, it appears Romans liked having their cities on flatter ground to allow for the standard Roman town plan. The Romans adapted to the inclined townsite quite well. As early as the fourth century BCE, people were describing Dougga as being “of impressive size.” During the second century BC, it had become the seat of the Numidian king Massinissa, whose support of Rome during the Third Punic War gained the town much importance. From the second century CE, under Roman administration, it enjoyed a period of great prosperity. At the town’s peak, ten thousand people called Dougga home. As an indication of Dougga’s importance, aerial photography has revealed no less than ten additional town sites within a ring of just six square kilometers of Dougga.

Later on, the Byzantines built huge fortifications, still very evident, around the town. After their departure, the town fell into ruin but the local inhabitants continued to live among the fallen arcades and decaying buildings until the end of the nineteenth century when excavating archeologists forced them down the hill into the purpose-built down of Nouvelle Dougga. Since excavation stopped, a few people have moved back into the ruins. They are mostly vultures who wait to pick off tourists for an expensive trip around the ruins. We did encounter one woman though who lived just outside the main ruins who had lived there for maybe 70 years. She told Karim how she wasn’t married and didn’t want to be even at 76 years because guys were stinky and whatnot. She talked his ear off with many comical stories. Karim gave her the gift of a couple of Gabes pomegranates. she seemed quite pleased.

The theater is a very impressive and well preserved complex as can be seen from my pictures. We never found the perfect resonance point. Instead, it appears the place was designed so the sound would be about equal all the way across the stage. It certainly wasn’t a place to give a play in a whisper, but with only a slightly elevated voice, the entire theater could easily hear the production. At one point, the entire structure was covered by a wooden and, most likely, cloth roof, as is made evident through large anchor points in the floor of the theater. it appears that it would have been quite the impressive structure at its height. even now, it’d be a great place for a concert or a play.

The gymnasium complex. There were hot, cold, steam, massage, and other such rooms, along with the typical roman physical fitness equipment. To get into the gymnasium, we had to walk through some tunnels running under the ruins of some houses.

One of the guards of Dougga. We gave him a couple of dinar so we could take his picture. He seemed very shocked with the idea that someone would give him money. Karim told him who we were and what we were doing. The kid seemed very happy.

A Libico-Punic mausoleum.

Kellen in front of some cacti. The fruit is very tasty, however, very sharp. Lucas still had a thorn in his hand a month after getting stabbed by a sticker. It took him another month before he cut it out of his palm.