"Dougga, another World Heritage location" a Dougga Travel Page by JLBG

Dougga is situated on the hills that face the rich Medjerda valley, one of the main wheat purveyors of Rome. It is about 550 meters above the sea level, 100 km away from Tunis and as the road is very good, it can be easily visited as a day trip. The site of Dougga offers now some nice ruins. Some have been restored. But as it is the case for many archaeological grounds in Tunisia, the best items have been transferred to the Bardo museum in Tunis. The whole area is about spreads over 65 hectares. Its position on the slopes forced Roman builders to renounce their standard city plan and adapt their monuments to the terrain.

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Dougga is a very old city and was first a Numidian city. It was mentioned in the 4th century BC by Diodorus the Sicilian under the names of Tocai or Tukka. It was from the 2nd to the 1st century BC one of the residences of the Massyle Kings (Massinissa, Micipsa, Jugurtha), allied to the Romans. In the Roman times the municipal land was split into two parts; the Numidian city, and a pagus (rural area) under the authority of Carthage. Whole again, Thugga became a municipium in 205 under Septime Sévère and an honorary colonia in 261. With some 10.000 residents, Thugga had a municipal bourgeoisie that endowed her with a number of rich monuments. After its 2nd century prosperity, Thugga slowly lost its glory, though it still enjoyed brief periods of revival in the 3rd, the 4th and 6th centuries when it was fortified by the Byzantine as a fortress. Though it was never deserted, archaeological research required the removal of its residents to a new Dougga lying below classical Thugga.

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The monuments are incredibly well preserved and include 12 Punic or Roman temples, 3 transformed into churches in the 4th century, 3 baths, numerous tanks and fountains, 1 nymphaeum, 1 aqueduct, 1 market, 2 theaters, 1 circus, several necropolises and mausoleums.
The last picture shows the view towards the west, down one of the main streets from the centre of Dougga with the Capitol in the background and one of the unexcavated areas on the left-hand side of the picture.

The site of Dugga has been inscribed in 1977 on the World heritage list.

The photos on this page were taken on several occasions, some in Spring, others in Summer, some at early morning, others later. This is why the stone will have very different looks.

For more on Dougga, you can visit this site that will give you a map of the city and another one with many pictures.