Eles (also transliterated as ''Ellès'' and ''Al Las'') is a village in the

Siliana Governorate Siliana Governorate ( ' ; ) is one of the twenty-four governorates (provinces) of Tunisia, is landlocked and is in the north of the country. It covers an area of 4,631 km2 and has a population of 223,087 (2014 census). The capital is S ...

, Tunisia. It is located around , about 13 km northwest of

Maktar Maktar or Makthar (), also known by other names during antiquity, is a town and archaeological site in Siliana Governorate, Tunisia. Maktar was founded by the Berber Numidians as a defense post against Carthaginian expansion. At the end of the ...

. Eles, Tunisia sits over a natural spring at the base of the surrounding hills. AtTheSpring

The village is notable for the large number of

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

s found immediately to the west, thought to be from around 2500 BC. BC. south and east of the village which are typical of the tombs found around Maktar. A study of fifty-three of the dolmens by Belmonte, Esteban and Jiménez González suggest that some of these tombs may be orientated towards

Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri (, α Cen, or Alpha Cen) is a star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus (constellation), Centaurus. It consists of three stars: Rigil Kentaurus (), Toliman (), and Proxima Centauri (). Proxima Centauri ...

. In contrast Hoskin argues that Tunisian dolmen orientations can be explained by the local topography, in that the entrances all face downhill. The local rock strata are geologically interesting as they provide a particularly good record of the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, which is now better known as the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the K–T extinction, was the extinction event, mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth approximately 66 million years ago. The event cau ...

. During the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

and

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

there was a ''

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by Roman law, law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilitie ...

'' (Roman town) called Ululi.Ululensis
at catholic-hierarchy.org.

Citations

General and cited references

* * * * Ancient Berber cities Archaeoastronomy Archaeological sites in Tunisia Catholic titular sees in Africa Roman towns and cities in Tunisia {{Tunisia-geo-stub