Français – عربي – ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ – English
Translation: Souliman El Abdellaoui
The Madghacen, or Medracen (ⵉⵎⴷⵖⴰⵙⵏ), is a mausoleum, in the Algerian region of the Aures, that was built in the 3rd Century BCE, by a Numidian king before Massinissa. It is the oldest mausoleum in North Africa.
The Medracen is situated close to Boumia, in the Batna wilaya, in the Aures Mountains. The mausoleum is a stone tumulus, about 60m large and 20m high. This type of construction is typically Amazigh, and reminds us of the tomb of Massinissa, in El Khroub, Constantine wilaya, and, especially, of the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, close to Tipasa (Tipaza), where King Juba II and his Queen Cleopatra Selene are buried.
Curiously, the Medracen is never mentioned during the Roman era. It has been described for the first time in the 11th Century, by the Arab Andalusian historian and geographer Al-Bakri, who writes, based on the testimony of the local populations, that it is the tomb of an ancient king named Madghis. Al-Bakri also describes the bas-reliefs that were decorating the mausoleum, representing various animals. Those ornaments are no longer visible today; they were probably pillaged during the Ottoman area. According to Ibn Khaldun, Madghis was the ancestor of the Numids.
Archaeological diggings at this site started in the 19th Century. It was originally believed that the Medracen was the tomb of Syphax, of Gaia (Massinissa’s father), or of Micispa. Later on, new research showed that the mausoleum was far older: it was built during the 3rd Century BCE. King Maghdis, who is buried there, was the founding father of the Numidian nation, and probably an ancestor of Massinissa.
