Madghacen 3rd century BC Mausoleum

Madghacen (also spelled: Medracen or Medghassen or Madghis and also spelled Imadghassen, correct berber spelling Imedghasen) is a monument built about 250-300 B.C. as the burial-place of the Numidian kings, and is located 60 km southwest of Constantine, Algeria. The form is that of a truncated cone, placed on a cylindrical base, 60 m in diameter. It is 18 m high.



The building is made of stone along with cedar logs and sealed with lead



The columns encircling the cylindrical portion are stunted and much broader at the base than the top; the capitals are Doric. Many of the columns, 60 in number, have been much damaged. When the sepulchral chamber was opened in 1873 by Bauchetet, a French engineer officer, clear evidence was found that at some remote period the tomb had been rifled and an attempt made to destroy it by fire.



It is an endangered piece of ancient history is on the list of 100 most endangered ancient buildings



The first mention of the mausoleum is in the 7th century AD by Al Bakri. he spoke of sixty reliefs that lined the outside of the building, but which no trace remains. The Ottomans tried to break in but later archaeologist found that their effort had failed. The French excavated the tomb in mid 19th century and found it had been robbed and set on fire in antiquity

The earliest known image of the site



Aerial photograph of the site



Most information on this site is in Arabic or French

Link to a French language wiki site covering the ruin

Thanks for posting that, it's really interesting. Nice to see something
reasonable and intriguing, considering all of the gibberish being posted
all around us.

reply to post by muzzleflash



Howdy Muzzleflash


Yes its an interesting little site. My wife used to work in Algeria and produced a photo of her standing next to it......I love seeing ruins I don't know anything about so I got to do a bit of ARSE, Archaeological Research Skill Exercise. To bad the site reports are all in French

As to your other comment

I believe the word 'ats' is Cimmerian for struthious and the medum isn't sand.

I wonder how many ancient Numidian rulers this mausoleum contained, if just one, or numerous? Specifically, I wonder if anyone knows whether any of them extended into the Roman period and may have been ones mentioned by Roman historians by name? Were there any corpses present, still, by the time excavations were carried out?

I would find the answers to these questions all quite intriguing/

Originally posted by MTSmooch
I wonder how many ancient Numidian rulers this mausoleum contained, if just one, or numerous? Specifically, I wonder if anyone knows whether any of them extended into the Roman period and may have been ones mentioned by Roman historians by name? Were there any corpses present, still, by the time excavations were carried out?

I would find the answers to these questions all quite intriguing/

Completely looted and set on fire. From the French webpage on the site translated using google

Archaeologists of the nineteenth century found nothing at all, remains of the deceased or the funeral furniture that would accompany it. Generations of looters had taken everything, especially during Turkish . The top of the monument incomplete should be occupied by a shrine , which has disappeared too