Ksar Sidi El Hadj Watchtower
About
An inscription at Ksar Sidi El Hadj names this lookout post a burgus speculatorium, a watchtower built under Commodus to guard travelers along the road through the narrow El Kantara defile, the main gap through the Aures mountains linking Numidia to the pre-desert south. It formed part of the Fossatum Africae, the linear system of ditches, walls, and watchtowers Rome built to control movement rather than repel invasion along its African frontier. That system began taking shape only after Hadrian's visit to the province in 122 CE, so in 117 CE this stretch of frontier had no fixed defenses 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
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 →