Tipaza (formerly ''Tefessedt'', Chenoua-Berber: Bazar, ⴱⴰⵣⴰⵔ, ar, تيپازة) is the capital of the

Tipaza Province Tipaza or Tipasa ( ar, ولاية تيبازة, ''Tibaza'', older ''Tefessedt'') is a province (''wilaya'') on the coast of Algeria, Its capital is Tipaza, 50 km west of the capital of Algeria. History The province was created from Blida ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. When it was part of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

, it was called '' Tipasa''. The modern town was founded in 1857, and is chiefly remarkable for its ancient ruins and sandy littoral.

History

Ancient history

''Tipasa'', as the city was then called, was an old

Punic The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...

trading-post conquered by

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

. It was subsequently turned into a military

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

by the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...

for the conquest of the kingdoms of

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern present-day Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants ...

. Afterwards it became a

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (pl. ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ("duty holders"), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the priv ...

called ''Colonia Aelia Tipasensis'', that reached the population of 20,000 inhabitants in the fourth century according to

Stéphane Gsell Stéphane Gsell (7 February 1864 – 1 January 1932) was a French historian and archaeologist. He was a specialist in ancient Africa and Roman Algeria. His main work is ''L'Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord'' (1913-1929). Principal publ ...

. The city served as an important Christian hub during the last centuries of Roman governorship, with three basilicas. Tipasa was destroyed by the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

in 430 CE, but was reconstructed by the Byzantines one century later. At the end of the seventh century the city was demolished by

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

forces and reduced to ruins. In the nineteenth century the place was settled again. Now it is a town of nearly 30,000 inhabitants. The city is an important tourist place in modern Algeria, mainly because of the Tipasa ruins.

Modern era

Near Tipaza, the

Tipaza longwave transmitter Tipaza Longwave Transmitter is a Broadcast transmitter of Algeria's Entreprise nationale de Radiodiffusion sonore. It broadcasts the French-speaking station ''Alger Chaîne 3'' on the longwave frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of ...

broadcasts French language Channel 3 radio programs from the Algerian Broadcasting Company. The longwave frequency 252 kHz can be well received in many parts of Europe. The town and its surroundings is home to the largest Berber-speaking group of western Algeria, the Chenoua people. The Tipaza station in 252 kHz had previously been out of service since March 17, 2014, but is broadcasting again at 252 kHz.se

- tuned to 252khz, as of 2015 Sept. 22

Gallery

File:Ruines romaines de Tipaza.jpg, Ruins of Roman Tipasa File:Tipaza basilique.jpg, Basilica of St. Crispinus File:Mausolée Royale de Maurétanie - الضريح الملكي الموريطاني.jpg, alt=, Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, The Royal Mausoleum of Mauritania File:The Anonymous Temple Tipaza.jpg, The Anonymous Temple File:Roman ruins of Tipaza,The New Templs.jpg, The New Temple File:La Villa des Fresques Tipaza.jpg, Villa des Fresques File:L'estrade de La Basilique Judiciaire Tipaza.jpg, La Basilique Judiciaire

References

External links

Tipasa MuseumSite
of

Unesco The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...