Algeria (Algiers, Blida, Chlef)

Commune and Wilaya (province) of Tipasa

N36 32 60 E2 22 60

Date of Inscription: 1982

iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;

iv. to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history;

Property : 52.16 ha

Ref: 193

Tipasa is a coastal town located on the shores of the Mediterranean, 70 km west of Algiers. The town’s name, which means “place of passage “or” stop, was founded in 5th century BC and comprises of:

The archaeological site of Tipasa regroups one of the most exceptional town-planning, architectural, historic and archaeological values of the Maghreb. It is one which is most significant to the study of the contacts between the indigenous civilizations and the different waves of colonization from the 6th century B.C. to the 6th century A.D. Tipasa was an ancient Punic trading-post conquered by Rome and turned into a strategic base by the emperor Claudius for the conquest of the kingdoms of Mauritania.

This ancient coastal city was first a Carthaginian trading centre, whose necropolis is one of the oldest and one of the most extensive of the Punic world (6th to 2nd century B.C.). During this period, Tipasa played the role of a maritime port of call, a place for commercial exchanges with the indigenous population.  Numerous necropolis testify to the very varied types of burial and funerary practices that bear witness to the multicultural exchange of influences dating back to protohistoric times.

Tipasa comprises a unique group of Phoenician, Roman, palaeochristian and Byzantine ruins alongside indigenous monuments. The Roman period is marked by a prestigious ensemble of buildings, comprising very diversified architectural typologies. The monumental, circular funerary building, the Kbor er Roumia, or the great Royal Mauritanian Mausoleum, associates a local architectural tradition of the basina type, to a style of stepped truncated roof covering, the result of the different contributions, notably Hellenistic and Pharaonic. other relics include the remains of a Basilica, cemetery, baths and an Amphiteatre.

From the 3rd to the 4th centuries A.D. a striking increase in Christianity is demonstrated by the multitude of religious buildings. Some are decorated with high quality mosaic pavings, illustrating scenes from daily life, or geometric patterns. The Vandal invasion of the 430’s did not mark the definitive end of prosperity of Tipasa, but the town, reconquered by the Byzantines in 531, gradually fell into decline from the 6th century.