Kherbet el-Borj Watchtower
About
A dedicatory inscription found at Kherbet el-Borj, known locally as Loth Bordj, names this second watchtower of the El Kantara defile a burgus speculatorium raised under an Antonine-dynasty emperor and dedicated by the provincial governor Marcus Valerius Senecio. It stood a short distance from its sister tower at Ksar Sidi El Hadj, together covering both approaches to the narrow pass linking Numidia to the desert frontier. Both towers belong to the Fossatum Africae system that took shape only after 122 CE, so in 117 CE this defile had no Roman watchtower at all.
What happened here
A small stone tower with a timber top, sited so that it can see the next one along the line. Half a dozen men live in it. They watch the ground in front, and they watch the tower on either side. A signal — fire and smoke at night, something visible by day — passes a warning down the chain far faster than a rider can, though it can only carry a message that was agreed in advance. The rest of the time it is a lookout post on a road, a river crossing or a frontier line, and the work is boredom punctuated by inspections. Supplies come up from the fort behind. Towers on a frontier stand within sight of each other for hundreds of miles.
Sources
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →