Roman ruins of Madauros

Near Souk Ahras lie the ruins of Madauros, an ancient town remembered as a centre of learning where Saint Augustine studied as a youth. Scattered across the site are the remains of a theatre, baths, a Byzantine fortress and the columns of temples, overlaid by later church building. Fragments of inscriptions record the intellectual life of a place that also claimed the writer Apuleius. Quiet and lightly visited, Madauros rewards travellers interested in the deep classical and early Christian roots of the Algerian interior.