Libyco-Punic Mausoleum of Dougga
Coordinates: 36°25′13″N 9°13′12″E / 36.420162°N 9.220131°E
The Libyco-Punic Mausoleum of Dougga, also called the Mausoleum of Atban, is an ancient mausoleum located in Dougga, Tunisia. It is one of three examples of Numidian royal architecture which is in a good state of preservation and dates to the 2nd century BC.
As part of the site of Dougga, the mausoleum is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. On 17 January 2012, the Tunisian government proposed it be included in a future classification of the royal mausoleums of Numidia and Mauretania and other pre-Islamic funerary monuments.
The first westerners to visit the site of Dougga arrived in the 17th century, becoming more frequent throughout the nineteenth century. The mausoleum was described by several of these tourists and was the object of early architectural studies at the end of the period.
In 1842, the British consul in Tunis Thomas Reade seriously damaged the monument in the process of removing the royal inscription which decorated it. The current state of monument is the result of a reconstruction of the pieces strewn through the surrounding area, carried out with Tunisian support by the French archaeologist Louis Poinssot between 1908 and 1910.
The 21 m high mausoleum is divided into three levels, atop a five step pedestal.
On the north face of the podium, the first of the three levels, an opening covered by a slab leads to the funerary chamber. The mausoleum's other faces are decorated with false openings, the corners with Aeolic pilasters.
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