Dear Reader (2025-10-31 – posted simultaneously to FB)
In this series, you and I are visiting places based on the order I choose to edit. There has though been somewhat of an idea behind the first eleven posts. We have stayed north (ish) of the Atlas mountains, and so let’s continue to do that once more to complete the first dozen posts.
Happy Halloween, and I have beautiful place for you to be a Roman ghost. Tipasa / Tipaza is a 1.5 to 2 hour drive west of central Algiers, on the Mediterranean coast. The complete Roman name of the town was Colonia Aelia Augusta Tipasensium. In 1982, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It was declared a World Heritage Site in danger in 2002, but was removed from the danger list in 2006 following conservation efforts. (1)
Tipasa was initially a small ancient Punic trading-post. After being conquered by the Romans (C 1st AD), it was turned into a military colony by the emperor Claudius for the conquest of the kingdoms of Mauretania. (1)
The Roman city was built on three small hills which overlooked the sea. Under Roman rule the city acquired greater commercial and military importance because of its harbour and its central position on the system of Roman coastal roads in North Africa. A wall of approximately 7,500 feet (2,300 metres) was built around the city for defense against nomadic tribes, and Roman public buildings and districts of houses were constructed within the enclosure. (1)
Footnotes
~ (1) – adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipasa
Notes On Photos
Given my complete lack of faith in AI to provide the right response, I suspect FB will balk at a stunning mosaic of three nymphs, and a statue of a god. Therefore, if you are seeing this on my website there are 14 images instead of the 12 images you see on FB.
~ 08 – The existentialist Albert Camus would come to this little overlook over the Mediterranean and make notes for what became his classic novella The Outsider / The Stranger. A stone was placed here in his memory that reads:
« Je comprends ici ce qu’on appelle gloire : le droit d’aimer sans mesure » – “Here I understand what is meant by glory: the right to love without limits.”
~ 12 – I found the detail in these C 2nd sculptures striking.
~ bonus 02 – Inside a fountain or bath
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Cheers, Sean
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All rights for all material on any media reserved – © Sean P Drysdale 2017-2025
I will bypass commentary on AI and Facebook, and thus do good things for my blood pressure.
1-I somehow hadn’t thought of Algeria and green together.
3-More arches! In some ways this brings to mind a high school drama teaching using foam or plastic blocks to arrange a set for a dramatic confrontation.
5-I laughed out loud on first viewing.
7-I looked at this one for a while, trying to balance it out in my mind. I know perfectly well the horizon is level, and that pillar is vertical. But the shape of the tree and the stone wall tell me the image is crooked.
9-Oh! You knew I’d love this one.
12-The work that goes into such art amazes me. I can just imagine the artist wanting to make the last finishing touches and destroying the work. Argh!
13, 14- The tile work must have been stunning when first completed!