Date of Inscription: 1982
Criteria: (iii)(iv)
Property : 52.16 ha
Dossier: 193
On the shores of the Mediterranean, Tipasa was an ancient Punic trading-post conquered by Rome and turned into a strategic base for the conquest of the kingdoms of Mauritania. It comprises a unique group of Phoenician, Roman, palaeochristian and Byzantine ruins alongside indigenous monuments such as the Kbor er Roumia, the great royal mausoleum of Mauretania.
The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania is a funerary monument located on the road between Cherchell and Algiers, in Tipaza Province, Algeria.
The mausoleum is the tomb where the Numidian Berber King Juba II (son of Juba I of Numidia) and the Queen Cleopatra Selene II, sovereigns of Numidia and Mauretania Caesariensis, were allegedly buried. However, their human remains are no longer at the site.
The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania is a common type of ancient mausoleums found in Numidia. It is built on a hill some 250 metres (756 feet) above sea level. The monument is entirely built from stone, while its main structure is in a circular form with a square base topped by a cone or a pyramid. The square base measures 60 to 60.9 metres square or 200 to 209 foot. The height of the monument was originally about 40 metres or 130’ in height. Due to damage that the mausoleum has suffered from natural elements and vandalism, the monument now measures 30-32.4 metres in height.
The base of the monument was decorated with 60 Ionic columns whose capitals were removed, possibly stolen. Inside, the centre of the mausoleum has two vaulted chambers, separated by a short passage connected by a gallery outside by stone doors which can be moved up and down by levers. The passage leading to the chambers is about 500’. One chamber measures 142 feet long by 11 feet broad and is 11 feet high, while the other is smaller.
The sepulchre is sometimes known as the Mausoleum of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene. In French, it is called the Tombeau de la Chrétienne ("the tomb of the Christian woman") because there is a Christian cross-like shape of the division lines on the false door.
Arabic, the mausoleum is called the Kubr-er-Rumia or Kbor er Roumia, which means "tomb of the Christian woman", as Rûm was taken in Arabic as the Eastern Roman Empire and, in North Africa, rumi took the meaning "Christian". It may have been a deformation of a Punic phrase for "the royal tomb".
