Dougga
March 6th, 2008
Our return flight from Istanbul was meet by our new friends Karen and Derek in a rental car. We spent that afternoon visiting Dougga, a UNESCO World Herigtage site and besides El Jem, the best preserved Roman site in North Africa. Originally a fortified Berber village (the name meant “pastures”), the Romans occupied the city in the late 2nd century BC. There was an amphitheatre, cisterns fed by aquaducts, the compass based inscription in the “Square of the Winds” (showing the 12 winds cut into the pavement) and a magnificent Capitol with a peristyle in very good condition. You could still see the chariot ruts cut into the stone streets. History really came alive in a modern way for us in this ancient agricultural city and there were animals grazing in between the wildflowers and ruins.
