Tipasa: Ancient Cosmopolitan Trade Centre
Tipasa, once an important trading post in today’s Algeria. Article shares the history of the Romans, and Phoenicians on this coastal site for senior travellers. An Antipodean travel company serving World Travellers since 1983 with small group educational tours for senior couples and mature solo travellers.
Tipasa
Lying on the present-day Algerian coast, 65 km (40 miles) west of Algiers, are the fascinating remains of the ancient city of Tipasa. Phoenician, Roman, early Christian, and Byzantine ruins all lay scattered alongside the golden beaches of the bay, spread out between a blue sea and rolling hills covered with pine trees.
Once bustling with inhabitants, this ancient town was long a key trading post, connecting to harbours across the Mediterranean, as well as inland into the prosperous kingdoms of Mauretania. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with archaeological sites ranging from a Punic necropolis to Roman baths and theatres, Christian basilicas and tombs, a comprehensive street network, and more!
This article explores the history and archaeology of the ancient city of Tipasa. It is written as part of Odyssey Traveller’s series on lost ancient cities, with information drawn from Philip Matyszak’s Lost Cities of the Ancient World. The information is intended as background reading for our tours to North Africa. With us, you can explore and learn about a number of ancient archaeological sites on our guided tours throughout Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco for mature and senior travellers. Read on for more information about Tipasa and our tours!
Phoenician and Hellenistic Tipasa
Tipasa was first settled by Phoenician sailors – the same people who founded Carthage down the coast to the east. They came to the harbour and sheltered beaches of Tipasa seeking anchorage in their travels along North African coastal routes. Houses of the local honey-coloured stone were built on a blow bluff overlooking the sheltered anchorage in the bay, and thereafter Tipasa was open for business.
Not only did the town serve as a stopover for travellers from all over the Mediterranean, but it quickly became the chosen venue for local traders to buy and sell commercial goods with a larger market. Located on the coast of what is today Algeria, it was conveniently positioned for merchants, whose ships ran before the prevailing winds to harbours in Sicily, Spain, and Italy. Tipasa was also a handy jumping-off point for those heading inland into what was then the prosperous kingdom of Mauretania. This location, at a nexus of early Mediterranean trade, is what gave Tipasa its name, which means ‘crossing place’.
The earliest remnants of these first settlers are their tombs, Tipasa being home to one of the oldest and most extensive Phoenician burial sites in the western Mediterranean. The oldest date back all the way to the 6th century BCE. Artefacts found at these sites suggest diverse tomb and funerary practices, with influences from Greece, Italy, Iberia, and even the great civilisations of Mesopotamia, as well as the local Nort African culture.
Later, when the Phoenician cities in the Levant were subsumed into the empire of Alexander the Great in the 330s BC, Tipasa came under the influence of Hellenistic settlers. This added a Greek flavour to the Semitic tone of the original trading settlement – which already had a strong local tinge.
This multicultural blend can still be seen in the highly impressive tomb of the last Ptolemaic queens, Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra VII and the Roman triumvir Mark Antony. By 20 BCE Cleopatra Selene was married to King Juba II of Numidia to cement a diplomatic alliance between Egypt and this part of North Africa. The royal couple evidently spent a considerable amount of time at Tipasa, as this is where they chose to be buried. Interestingly, their mausoleum is not only similar to other burial places in ancient Numidia, but also bears a very strong resemblance to the mausoleum that Augustus designed for himself in Rome.
Under Roman Rule
By the 1st century CE, the expanding Roman empire had taken over the North African littoral, with Mauretania – the region in which Tipasa was located – annexed in 43 CE. At this point, the Roman emperor Claudius granted Tipasa Latin rights (partial citizenship) and a new layer was added to the city’s cosmopolitan structure. Typically Roman features were installed, including baths, a basilica, and an amphitheatre for the public entertainment of a population that probably numbered some twenty thousand.
The city both remained an important station on the international maritime trade routes, while also gaining greater military importance. Its status was partly due to its sheltered harbour, but also the fact that the Romans made it a central node in the network of roads that they were building across that part of Africa. The roads made it easier for local goods to be brought to market, and in the Roman era large-scale agriculture took off around the city, and many Roman villas were built.
The city grew as the Roman empire prospered, reaching its greatest extent in the second and third centuries CE. A defensive wall that was over 2 kilometres (1¼ miles) in length was erected around the city to protect this important military and commercial centre from Berber raids.
By this time, Tipasa had officially become a Roman colony. The people of Colonia Aelia Augusta Tipasensium – to give the city the full Roman name bestowed upon it in the mid-Antonine period (CE 117–161) – were Roman citizens with full rights. Also in this period the emperor Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius, ordered the rebuilding of Tipasa’s walls on an even grander scale.
The anchorage by the beach would have been thronged with merchants, with cargoes of olives, ivory and exotic beasts in cages stacked on the wharves. The market in the forum would have been packed with camels, donkeys, and farm animals such as goats and chickens, many awaiting onboard consumption by hungry sailors. The seamen themselves might be North African, Greek, Syrian, Gallic or Italian.
Housing and villa complexes stretched along the shores of the bay to the slopes of Mount Chenoua – the dominant geographical feature on the western side. The walled city lay mostly on the central bluff, the whole covering more than 70 hectares (173 acres).
Christian Tipasa
Christianity was introduced to Tipasa in the early 3rd century – the first Christian inscriptions dating back to 238. The city soon became an important centre of the religion, serving as an episcopal see.
The construction of a fresh crop of Christian buildings in the later 3rd and 4th centuries signalled the status of the religion to the city. Today the ruins of two largest basilicas of actual Algeria – the Great Basilica and the Basilica Alexander – can be found on the ancient city’s western hill. They are surrounded by cemeteries of massive coffin-filled tombs, all made of stone and covered with mosaics.
On the eastern hill, meanwhile, sits a third large church – the Basilica of St Salsa. St Salsa was the pride of Christian Tipasa. According to legend, the saint as an adolescent girl in the 4th century was martyred here by indignant townsfolk after she not only protested against the rites honouring the local god, but also threw the cult statue into the sea. Her basilica consists of a nave and two aisles, and still contains paved mosaic floors.
Tipasa’s Decline
As the Pax Romana began to crumble, around 372, the walls of Tipasa were tested by a Beber rebellion assault. Led by Firmus, the local rebel’s forces had by that point overran a number of other nearby cities, including Icosium, 70 kilometres (43½ miles) away, which became the modern city of Algiers. Tipasa managed to withstand the assault, and the city went onto serve as the base for the Roman counter suppression of the rebellion.
Tipasa’s fortifications, however, failed to prevent the barbarian Vandal tribe taking the city some half century later in 429. With this the city’s prosperity enjoyed during the Roman period came to a brutal end. Then, in 484, the Vandal king Huneric expelled the Catholic bishop of Tipasa and replaced him with an Arian bishop, promoting many of the city’s inhabitants to flee to Spain to avoid persecution.
This seemed to spell the end of Tipasa, with the ancient city abandoned soon after. Although the Byzantines rebuilt some of the city after reconquering much of North Africa in the 6th century, they paid little attention to the city and the few neglected Byzantine structures rapidly joined the rest of the city in falling into ruins slowly buried beneath sand and debris. By the time of the Muslim conquest in the late 600s and early 700s, Tipasa was barely a memory.
Tipasa Today
Tipasa sprang back to life settled as a village in the 1850s and today is the large town of Tipaza with nearly 30,000 inhabitants. The town and its surroundings cater to the tourist trade, known for vine-growing, white sandy beaches, and of course its important archaeological sites.
Unfortunately, although many of the ruins of the old city were protected through the centuries beneath up to 4 metres (13 feet) of debris, changing sea levels have damaged some sites near the ancient waterline. Now, storm surges brought on by an increasingly violent climate are endangering much of what remains. In early years of Tipasa’s resettlement, new housing also encroached upon the ancient ruins. Western tourists then compounded this problem, taking advantage of unrestricted access to the site to help themselves to souvenirs.
To aide in the protection of the ancient city, Tipasa’s ruins were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. Two archaeological parks here now protect much of what remains.
Tour of Africa
Odyssey Traveller offers a wide range of stimulating educational Africa tours. What differentiates us as a tour operator is that our tours and the journey created have an itinerary and a tour guide and are designed for active, inquisitive travellers in a small group environment that is typically comprised of between 6 to 12 like-minded travellers. In Africa our small group tours will take you to such places as Luxor, Casablanca and the bustling souks that define Moroccan culture, the Red Sea, and the Roman ruins in Tunisia and Algeria.
Our fully escorted travel programs offer a unique opportunity for the discerning adult to make the leap from tourist to traveller. We are constantly refining our programs and tour offerings to satisfy our travellers’ needs. Recently we added small group historical tours North Africa to the portfolio of places offered each year, including an 18-day Egypt Tour, a 20-day Morocco Tour, and a 14-day Tour of Tunisia. Each provide the traveller the opportunity to immerse themselves in the ancient history of these countries, while also exploring contemporary feats.
Odyssey Travel are small group tour travel specialists. Our small group tours are tailor-made for mature travellers, be they over 50, over 60, or over 70, travelling as a couple or as a solo traveller . We have been offering specialised adventure and educational programs since 1983, with our small group tours of Africa from Australia just part of almost 200 escorted tours we offer each year.
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