The Romans in Algeria

Algeria is one of the ancient world's best-kept secrets. This vast and compelling country is home to some of the most extraordinary Roman remains anywhere in the Mediterranean, yet which relatively few modern travellers have had the privilege of seeing. On this tour we will walk streets that have scarcely changed in two millennia. At Timgad the colonial grid plan survives with a completeness found nowhere else in the Empire, its cardo and decumanus still legible beneath an Algerian sky. At Djémila, a UNESCO World Heritage Site set in a dramatic mountain landscape, the forum, temples and Christian basilicas speak to centuries of continuous civic life and at Hippo Regius we will see the remains of a city where Augustine once served as bishop and wrestled with the fall of Rome. Algeria is opening up and access is now easier than it has been for many years. It will not remain the world's best-kept archaeological secret forever; to travel here now is to see these sites with a sense of space, peace, and genuine wonder.