The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania is a common type of ancient mausoleums found in Numidia. It is built on a hill some 250 metres (756 feet) above sea level. The monument is entirely built from stone, while its main structure is in a circular form with a square base topped by a cone or a pyramid. The square base measures 60 to 60.9 metres square or 200 to 209 foot. The height of the monument was originally about 40 metres or 130’ in height. Due to damage that the mausoleum has suffered from natural elements and vandalism, the monument now measures 30-32.4 metres in height.
The base of the monument was decorated with 60 Ionic columns whose capitals were removed, possibly stolen. Inside, the centre of the mausoleum has two vaulted chambers, separated by a short passage connected by a gallery outside by stone doors which can be moved up and down by levers. The passage leading to the chambers is about 500’. One chamber measures 142 feet long by 11 feet broad and is 11 feet high, while the other is smaller.
History
View of the Mausoleum from the sea
The sepulchre is sometimes known as the Mausoleum of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene. In French, it is called the Tombeau de la Chrétienne ("the tomb of the Christian woman") because there is a Christian cross-like shape of the division lines on the false door.[citation needed] In Arabic, the mausoleum is called the Kubr-er-Rumia or Kbor er Roumia, which means "tomb of the Christian woman", as Rûm was taken in Arabic as the Eastern Roman Empire and, in North Africa, rumi took the meaning "Christian".[2] It may have been a deformation of a Punic phrase for "the royal tomb".[2]
The mausoleum is probably the Royal Tomb that the 1st-century Roman geographer Pomponius Mela (1.31) described as the monumentum commune regiae gentis ("the communal mausoleum of the royal family"). If the geographer’s description of the mausoleum is correct, then the building was not intended just for Juba and Cleopatra, but envisaged as a dynastic funeral monument for their royal descendants.
In the 16th century, the mausoleum was believed by some Spaniards to be the tomb of Florinda la Cava, the legendary Spanish woman, whose rape led to the Islamic conquest of Iberia. It has been explained as a confusion of Qabr Arrumiyya ("Christian tomb", locally qbér érromiya) and qàhba romiya ("Christian whore").[2]
In 1555, the Pasha of Algiers, Salah Rais, gave orders to pull down the mausoleum. After large black wasps swarmed out and stung some of the workers to death, the effort was abandoned. At the end of the 18th century, Baba Mahommed tried in vain to destroy the monument with artillery.
The human remains of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene have not been found at the site. This is perhaps due to a grave robbery that occurred at an uncertain time (possibly shortly after the Mausoleum's construction).[4] It is also possible that the structure was simply meant to serve as a memorial and not an actual place of burial.[4]
Although these archaeological remains, including the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, are protected, the ruins located between Cherchell and Tipaza face constant threats from continual urban construction and expansion, open sewage drainage run offs, poor maintenance, and constant vandalism. Due to these ongoing problems, these archaeological remains face an uncertain future.
The local authorities have failed and had problems implementing a 1992 ‘Permanent Safeguarding and Presentation Plan’ an effective management program in preserving these ruins. In 2001, the World Heritage Site provided emergency assistance for this archaeological site. In 2002, experts from UNESCO went to visit the site and to report on the condition of the ruins; the archeological site has been placed on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.
↑ Quinn, J. (2013). Monumental power: ‘Numidian Royal Architecture’ in context. In J. Prag & J. Quinn (Eds.), The Hellenistic West: Rethinking the Ancient Mediterranean (pp. 179–215). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139505987.008
1 2 3 Montaner Frutos, Alberto (2006). "Zara / Zoraida y la Cava Rumía: Historia, leyenda e invención" [Zara / Zoraida and la Cava Rumía: History, legend and invention]. In Martínez de Castilla, Nuria; Gil Benumeya Grimau, Rodolfo (eds.). De Cervantes y el Islam[About Cervantes and Islam] (in Spanish). Madrid: Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales. pp.270–273. ISBN978-8496411180. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
↑ Michael Tutton, James W.P. Campbell (2020). Doors History, Repair and Conservation. Routledge. p.36. ISBN978-1-317-30939-0.
The archeology in Algeria is rich in prehistoric memorials of human occupation. Algeria contains many Roman remains and is rich in monuments of Saracenic art.
Juba II of Mauretania was the son of Juba I and client king of Numidia and Mauretania. Aside from his very successful reign, he was a highly respected scholar and author. His first wife was Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman Triumvir Mark Antony.
Ptolemy of Mauretania was the last Roman client king and ruler of Mauretania for Rome. He was the son of Juba II, the king of Numidia and a member of the Berber Massyles tribe, as well as a descendant of the Ptolemaic dynasty via his mother Cleopatra Selene II.
Mauretania is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, of Berber ancestry, were known to the Romans as the Mauri and the Masaesyli.
Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between the Massylii state in the east and the Masaesyli state in the west. During the Second Punic War, Masinissa, king of the Massylii, defeated Syphax of the Masaesyli to unify Numidia into the first unified Berber state for Numidians in present-day Algeria. The kingdom began as a sovereign state and an ally of Rome and later alternated between being a Roman province and a Roman client state.
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb, or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum.
Siga was a Berber and Roman port located near what is now Aïn Témouchent, Algeria. Under the Roman Empire, it was part of western Mauretania Caesariensis, bordering Mauretania Tingitana.
Mauretania Caesariensis was a Roman province located in present-day Algeria. The full name refers to its capital Caesarea Mauretaniae.
Cleopatra Selene II was a Ptolemaic princess, Queen of Numidia and Mauretania and Queen of Cyrenaica. She was an important royal woman in the early Augustan age.
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Tipasa, sometimes distinguished as Tipasa in Mauretania, was a colonia in the Roman province Mauretania Caesariensis, nowadays called Tipaza, and located in coastal central Algeria. Since 1982, it has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It was declared a World Heritage Site in danger in 2002, but was removed from the danger list in 2006 following conservation efforts.
Micipsa was the eldest legitimate son of Masinissa, the King of Numidia, a Berber kingdom in North Africa. Micipsa became the King of Numidia in 148 BC.
Julia Drusilla was a princess of the Roman client kingdom of Mauretania in North Africa. She was the daughter of Ptolemy of Mauretania and thus a great-granddaughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. She was married to the procurator Marcus Antonius Felix in the reign of Roman emperor Claudius and later the Emesene priest-king Sohaemus.
Caesarea in Mauretania was a Roman colony in Roman-Berber North Africa. It was the capital of Mauretania Caesariensis and is now called Cherchell, in modern Algeria.
The Archaeological Museum of Cherchell is an archaeological museum located in the center of the seaport town of Cherchell in Tipaza Province, Algeria.
Masinissa II was the petty king of western Numidia with his capital at Cirta (81–46 BC). He was named after, or took his name after, his famous ancestor Masinissa I, the unifier and founder of the kingdom of Numidia.
Masteabar was a petty king of western Numidia. He was a son of Gauda, ruler of all Numidia, and brother of Hiempsal II, ruler of eastern Numidia. His existence is known only from a single fragmentary inscription. It seems that Gauda, on his death in 88 BC, divided his kingdom between his sons, Hiempsal receiving the larger part and Masteabar the smaller.
Florinda la Cava, or simply La Cava, is a character who, according to legend, played a central role in the downfall of the Visigothic kingdom in Spain in 711. Although she was treated as historical in Spain for centuries, there is no evidence for her existence whatsoever and her name is certainly a later concoction.
A tholos, in Latin tholus, is a form of building that was widely used in the classical world. It is a round structure with a circular wall and a roof, usually built upon a couple of steps, and often with a ring of columns supporting a conical or domed roof.
The architecture of Algeria encompasses a diverse history influenced by a number of internal and external forces, including the Roman Empire, Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, French colonization, and movements for Algerian independence.
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