The Tomb of the Christian Woman is a royal burial site situated about 12 km from Tipasa, and dating back to the first century BCE. The mausoleum could be the tomb of Juba II and his wife Cleopatra Selene. However, no remains were found at the site. The attribution of the Tomb of the Christian to Juba II remains a mere hypothesis. One thing is certain: the monument served as a tomb for a whole family of Moorish kings.
This mausoleum was obviously modeled on the
Medrassen. Outside, the general shape is the same: it is the same gigantic circular building, adorned with some sixty columns and topped by a stepped truncated cone. The diameter is also roughly the same, however, the Tomb of the Christian Woman is almost twice higher than the Medrassen. In 1982, the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as being part of the near Roman archaeological site of Tipasa.
SOURCES:
Berbrugger, Adrien. “Tombeau de la Chrétienne.”
Revue africaine 11 (1867).
Dondin-Payre, Monique. “L’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres et la photographie : les fouilles du Tombeau de la Chrétienne au XIXe siècle.” Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 147 (3) (2003).
Gsell, Stéphane. Les monuments antiques de l’Algérie, Vol. I. Paris: Albert Fontemoing Éd., 1901.
Koumas, Ahmed and Chehrazade Nafa.
L’Algérie et son patrimoine, dessins français du XIXème siècle. Paris: Éditions du patrimoine, 2006.
Les Mausolées Royaux de Numidie, de la Maurétanie et les monuments funéraires pré-islamiques. Accessed February 03, 2019.
http://whc.unesco.org/fr/listesindicatives/1776/