Roman town and a big mosque

I had a disturbed night with the knee so resorted to Codeine as well as paracetamol.

There were a lot of quite voluble Chinese business people at breakfast. We set off a bit later today at 8.30, heading out of town with a new police escort, for the impressively sited Roman ruin of Tiddis, previously a Berber/Amazigh settlement strategically placed on a steep hillside at about 1,600 ft. The scenery on the way there was pretty as the barley was almost ripe and we were on a country road surrounded by hills and gorges. Tiddis was small- maybe between 4-5000 people. Paved streets wind up the hillside through an arch and past the Temple of Mithras to a baptistery and a forum, reputed to be the smallest in the world. There was an inscription on one stone about a local inhabitant, Lolius Quintus Urbicus, who became a soldier in Spain and Germany, eventually rising to the Governor of Britain. He was responsible for having the Antonine Wall built. The others climbed higher to see the cisterns (the only source of water was from rain) while I went back down the hill to sit in the shade on a big stone.

We then drove back to Constantine, the second largest city in Algeria, to visit the impressive Abdul Khader mosque, the second largest mosque in the country, started in the 70s but it came to a halt during the time of political problems, being finally finished in 1994 with financial input from Saudi. (The locals aren’t happy about the biggest one, built by the government, as few live in the area it’s in and they’d have preferred the fast amount of money be spent on hospitals and schools). Before entering the mosque today the 5 women in the group were led to an area where we were given suitable clothing. I had my own scarf of course but was issued with a thick black coat to wear over my already covered body - I had a shirt with high neck, long sleeves and it covered my long loose trousers to the hip. Ooh I was a sweaty Betty by the time we got back. The men were fine in T shirts and trousers. Unusually for a mosque, this had stained glass windows. There were lovely geometric patterns on the marble pillars. When putting my shoes on at the end the woman beside me asked where I was from. She’d gone to Lancaster university. I had a wander outside where younger women approached me to chat. Two asked if I’d read the Koran. I said I hadn’t. Had they read the Bible? Oh how we laughed. Another young woman who appeared to be graduating wanted a photo with me. Some children asked if they could practice English with me. It was fun but M’Hamet was getting fidgety about lunch so called me back to the group. Lunch was in a small cafe with low gold-coloured tables with matching plates and cutlery. We had a deep-fried samosa thing - no idea what was in it as it had no discernible flavour. Next was a kind of lentil soup with a smoky flavour. A bowl of pale sausages appeared in a greasy broth, along with a small pasta more like bulgar wheat. Melon came next and after a lot of hanging about the lights went out and a cake appeared as it was Transmit Only’s 72nd birthday. We all sang and the cake got shared out. The cakes here are very synthetic and sweet but Mr C manfully helped me out. The Australian Janine and I started talking about favourite cocktails which Chris of the Torygraph found quite amusing as we’ve got quite a while be dry.

After lunch it was a steep walk to the museum. There were a couple of mosaics, one of Venus, and some paintings from the French period, Berber pottery, a statue of an emperor’s wife, a case of ivory needles and spindle whortles, coins etc. There was nowhere to sit and my knee was throbbing so I went outside where the bus was but it wasn’t long before the others appeared. I decided to give the tour of a palace and the walk to the market a miss and walked back to the hotel, a few minutes away, at 4pm.

It’s not the season yet for the pool to be open (!) so I’ll read my book in the room till we meet to go to a local restaurant for dinner.

I’m sorry not to be commenting on Blips but not only is time short, the connection is unreliable. I’m writing the diary on the bus and having to upload when it lets me.

Thank you for your interest in this amazing country. I’m finding it so friendly and fascinating