Mausoleum of Bes

About

Local Numidian and Punic craftsmen raised this tower-tomb around the mid-2nd century BCE, more than two centuries before Rome absorbed Sabratha into its African provinces. Its upper story carries reliefs of Bes, a Punic protector-god of the dead, which gave the mausoleum its modern name. By 117 CE the tomb has stood on this ground for close to 300 years, already ancient before Trajan was even born.

What happened here

The tomb is built where the traffic is: on the road out of town, facing the carriageway, close enough to read at walking pace. That is the design brief. Inside there may be a single chamber for one family or niches for dozens, with cremation urns or, increasingly, bodies laid out. Outside there is a portrait, an inscription giving the dead their offices and their years, and often a bench, because visitors come back. The family returns on the anniversary and at the February festival of the dead, brings wine and food, and eats a meal at the graveside. Endowments are left to keep it up and lawsuits follow when they are not honoured. A grand tomb is the last public building a family gets to commission.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabrata

Nearby

Theatre of Sabratha

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Amphitheatre of Sabratha

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Curia of Sabratha

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Temple of Liber Pater

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Capitolium of Sabratha

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Temple of Antoninus Pius

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