My Exploration of the World and Myself: Algeria- Day2

So day two was all about being a tourist.... it is so cute. There are only 2 families who had cars there... so the kids (and adults!!!) would fight over who got to take us around... So here we are, loaded in the car and we drive to see some Roman ruins. On route, we stop in a small town for some BBQ chicken. The men get out first, go and get us our table set up, and then they come back and escort us into the restaurant. It was a little old diner known for it's BBQ'd chicken... and mmmmm was it good. People from first world countries probably wouldn't want to see the state of the kitchen....but if you've got a stomach with great walls, you would have enjoyed the chicken and mouth water merguez sausage as much as I did!!!! And of course.... coke from a glass bottle... in reality, there is no other way to enjoy a bottle of coke (more to come on this topic on Day 3). I didn't want to take a picture of the kitchen on purpose, I want to tint your image of the food based on what the restaurant kitchens in third world countries look like... All you really need to know, that the food was made with love, it was eadible, it was eaten with great company and it tasted INCREDIBLY delicious. Also, with us young foreign girls in town, the restaurant was swarming with the young men from the local town.... hehe :) Glad we could help bring in some business....

So after lunch, off we went on route to Tipaza...

Had to do some market window shopping on our way....of course....

And here we are:

Tipaza (formerly Tefessedt, Chenoua: Bazar, Arabic: تيبازة‎) is a town on the coast of Algeria, capital of the Tipaza province. The modern town, founded in 1857, is remarkable chiefly for its sandy beach, and Roman ruins.

History

Ancient history

Tipaza was founded by the Phoenicians. It was made a Roman military colony by the emperor Claudius, and afterwards became a municipium. The Roman city was built on three small hills which overlooked the sea. Of the houses, most of which stood on the central hill, no traces remain; but there are ruins of three churches — the Great Basilica and the Basilica Alexander on the western hill, and the Basilica of St Salsa on the eastern hill, two cemeteries, the baths, theatre, amphitheatre and nymphaeum. The line of the ramparts can be distinctly traced and at the foot of the eastern hill the remains of the ancient harbour. The basilicas are surrounded by cemeteries, which are full of coffins, all of stone and covered with mosaics. The basilica of St. Salsa, which has been excavated by Stéphane Gsell, consists of a nave and two aisles, and still contains a mosaic. The Great Basilica served for centuries as a quarry, but it is still possible to make out the plan of the building, which was divided into seven aisles. Under the foundations of the church are tombs hewn out of the solid rock. Of these one is circular, with a diameter of 18 m and space for 24 coffins. Commercially it was of considerable importance, but it was not distinguished in art or learning. Christianity was early introduced, and in the third century Tipaza was a bishop's see. Most of the inhabitants continued non-Christian until, according to the legend, Salsa, a Christian maiden, threw the head of their serpent idol into the sea, whereupon the enraged populace stoned her to death. The body, miraculously recovered from the sea, was buried, on the hill above the harbour, in a small chapel which gave place subsequently to the stately basilica. Salsa's martyrdom took place in the 4th century. In 484 the Vandal king Huneric (477‑484) sent an Arian bishop to Tipaza; whereupon a large number of the inhabitants fled to Spain, while many of the remainder were cruelly persecuted.

Tipaza revived for a brief time during the Byzantine occupation in the 6th century but was given the Arabic language name, Tefassed, when Arabs arrived there. The term translated means badly damaged.^[1]

We scoped the place out a bit...

Beautiful Ancient Roman Ruins.... in your local museum, you definitely wouldn't be able to touch/walk amongst ruins such as these...

It was so cute.... as we were in the car waiting to leave the house, we called Munir (see below) in the car just to chat... then his dad started driving off and looked in the back seat and saw him sitting on our laps... he stopped the car and was like, "What, Munir, when did you get in here? What are you doing here? Did you tell your mom?" hahaha...it was so cute... he had advised his mom, so he came with us, a great little companion!!!

Beautiful view!!!!!

A bunch of us watching these 'not so smart' guys jumping off a rock in the ocean...dangerouusss...

So from there we decided to go for a little drive to explore the area and get a great view of the Mediterranean.... so we got to this point on the road.

Lots of cars stop here for the beautiful view... so there are of course men on the side of the street trying to sell things, such as this infamous tea which I found out actually originated in Morocco.... There were people trying to sell it on the beach, on the side of the street, in markets... it's everywhere!!! I did a little research on the tea... this is what I found:

Moroccan tea culture

Moroccan tea culture (Arabic: الشاي‎ - al-shāy , Moroccan Arabic: اتاي - Ataí) is defined by the way tea (exclusively green tea) is prepared and consumed in Morocco, where it is widely consumed with food. The tradition has also spread throughout North Africa, parts of the Sahel, and southern Spain. Tea occupies a very important place in Moroccan culture and is considered an art form. Morocco is one of the biggest tea importers of the world.

Moroccan mint tea is a green tea with mint leaves, favored by Dan Chyutin. It contains caffeine.

Moroccan-style mint tea is now commonly served all through the West Arab World (North Africa). It is served not only at mealtimes but all through the day, and it is especially a drink of hospitality, commonly served whenever there are guests. Unlike Moroccan food, cooked by women, this tea is traditionally a man's affair: prepared by the head of the family. It is served to guests, and it is impolite to refuse it.

Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, countries where it is most often drunk, consume respectively 1.4, 1.5 and 0.7 kg of tea yearly per capita.

Origins

It is believed that green tea was first introduced to Morocco in the 18th century, and began spreading through the country in the mid-1800s at the time the trade between the Maghreb and Europe started flourishing. It is reported that Sultan Moulay Ismail received many bags of tea and sugar as gifts and recompenses given by European envoys in order to release European prisoners.

The main provider of tea to Morocco remains China. According to the Moroccan trade ministry, Morocco imported more than $56 million worth of Chinese tea during the first half of 2006. Morocco is considered the first importer of Chinese green tea worldwide.^[1]

Preparation

The method of preparation of atai is relatively complex and varies from region to region. It is normally sweeter in the north of Morocco than in the south, and in some places, pine nuts are added. In the winter, if mint is rare, sometimes leaves of wormwood (chiba or sheeba in Moroccan Arabic) are substituted for (or used to complement) the mint, giving the tea a distinctly bitter flavor. Lemon Verbena (louiza in Moroccan) is also used to give it a lemony flavor.

The typical green tea used is a gunpowder tea variety imported from China. A simple and practical method runs as follows:

In a teapot, combine two teaspoons of tea-leaf with half a litre of boiling water. Allow it to steep for at least fifteen minutes.

Without stirring, filter the mixture into a different stainless steel pot, so that the tea leaves and coarse powder are removed.

Add sugar (about one teaspoon per decilitre).

Bring to boil over a medium heat. This important step in the preparation process allows the sugar to undergo hydrolysis, giving the tea its distinctive taste.

If desired, add fresh mint leaves to the teapot or directly to the cup. Remember to remove the mint within two minutes, as it can give some people acid reflux.

Nowadays many Moroccans choose to drink green tea without mint because of health concerns related to the large quantities of pesticides used in mint cultivation.

Traditionally the tea is served three times, and the amount of time the tea has been steeping gives each of the three glasses of tea a unique flavor, described in this famous proverb:

Le premier verre est aussi amer que la vie,
le deuxième est aussi fort que l'amour,
le troisième est aussi doux que la mort.
The first glass is as bitter as life,
the second glass is as strong as love,
the third glass is as gentle as death.
Here is a picture of the man brewing it up....

Shame... it was so sad, they had two peacocks tied up to the rocks by their feet with all of their beautiful feathers plucked out... they used them to sell the feathers. In case you didn't know....

Sexual selection is the theory proposed by Charles Darwin that states that certain evolutionary traits can be explained by intraspecific competition. Darwin defined sexual selection as the effects of the "struggle between the individuals of one sex, generally the males, for the possession of the other sex".^[1] Biologists today distinguish between "male to male combat" or "Intrasexual Selection" (it is usually males who fight each other), "mate choice" or "Intersexual Selection" (usually female choice of male mates)^[2] and sexual conflict. Traits selected by male combat are called secondary sexual characteristics (including horns, antlers, etc.) and sometimes referred to as "weapons"; and traits selected by mate choice are called "ornaments". Much attention has been given to cryptic female choice,^[3] a phenomenon in internally fertilising animals such as mammals and birds, where a female will get rid of a male's sperm without his knowledge. The equivalent in male-to-male combat is sperm competition.

Females often prefer to mate with males with external ornaments, exaggerated features of morphology. These preferences may arise when an arbitrary female preference for some aspect of male morphology—initially increased by genetic drift—creates, in due course, selection for males with the appropriate ornament. This is known as the sexy son hypothesis. Alternatively, genes that enable males to develop impressive ornaments or fighting ability may simply show off greater disease resistance or a more efficient metabolism, features that also benefit females. This idea is known as the good genes hypothesis.
Geometric progression

In species where the reproductive success of one sex depends heavily on winning the concession of the other, as with many polygamous birds, sexual selection will act by increasing the degree of preference to which it is due, with the consequence that both the trait preferred and the intensity of preference will be increased together. This process causes a fervent and rapid evolution of both the conspicuous ornamentation and the preference for such, until arrested directly or indirectly for ecological peacock (shown above). It is important to note that while a peacock may have exorbitant plumage, the peahen has even more exorbitant taste for such.^[5] reasons. Thus, in many cases a positive feedback loop of sexual selection is created, resulting in exorbitant physical structures in the non-limited sex, the most notorious example being the

Initially to start the process there would need to be a correlation between the trait and higher fitness. For this example we use a hypothetical species of songbird, of the order Passeriformes. Tail length in these birds is correlated with fitness such that longer tails equate to higher fitness. As females of subsequent generations favor males with longer tails, the preference for them would cause them to be conspicuously favored after many generations.

The peahen will desire to mate with the most attractive Peacock so that her progeny, if male, will be attractive to females in the next generation. Additionally the Peacock will desire to mate with a Peahen that finds him attractive so that if the progeny is female, preference for his degree of ornamentation remains present in the next generation. Since the rate of change in preference is proportioned according to the highest average degree of taste amongst females, and that females desire to best other members of the sex, it creates an additive effect in the cyclical process that will yield exponential increases, in both sexes, if unchecked.

R.A.Fisher in The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection was the first to articulate this process in a game theoretic style treatment.

“ plumage development in the male, and sexual preference for such developments in the female, must thus advance together, and so long as the process is unchecked by severe counterselection, will advance with ever-increasing speed. In the total absence of such checks, it is easy to see that the speed of development will be proportional to the development already attained, which will therefore increase with time exponentially, or in geometric progression. —Ronald Fisher, 1930 ”

“ The exponential element, which is the kernel of the thing, arises from the rate of change in hen taste being proportional to the absolute average degree of taste. —Ronald Fisher, 1932 ^[6] ”

“ It is important to notice that the conditions of relative stability brought about by these or other means, will be far longer duration than the process in which the ornaments are evolved. In most existing species the runaway process must have been already checked, and we should expect that the more extraordinary developments of sexual plumage are not due like most characters to a long and even course of evolutionary progress, but to sudden spurts of change. —Ronald Fisher, 1930 ”

Since Fisher's initial conceptual model of the 'run-away' process, various others have continued the work on modeling an accurate mathematical proof. Notably R.Lande^[7] & P.O'Donald.

Poor male peacocks... humans have stripped away their ability seduce female peacocks.... shame on humans.

And for what!?!? Okay, yes these are very pleasing to the eye

But.... look at this poor bird....

Will he ever regain the ability to be loved again?! Look at the sorrow in his eye....

I would just like you to think about this life lesson for a minute.

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Moving on....

So we kept going and we just stopped at the top of the mountain to admire the hundreds of people at this crowded beach!!!

And the beautiful houses on the hill....

From there we were headed up to:

Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania

The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania is a magnificent indigenous funeral monument that is located in North Africa. The great monument is located on the road between Cherchell and Algiers in Algeria. The Mausoleum is the tomb where the Roman Client Monarchs Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II are buried. This tomb is the most famous known monument built by Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II, in their reign as King and Queen of Mauretania.

History

This monument is sometimes known as the Mausoleum of Juba and Cleopatra Selene. In the French language the mausoleum is known as Tombeau de la Chretienne, "the tomb of the Christian woman", because there is a cross-like shape of the division lines on the false door. In Arabic, the mausoleum is called the Kubr-er-Rumia or Kbor er Roumia, which means the tomb of the Roman woman. When the Arabs first conquered North Africa they used to call people, places or anything that was not from non-Muslim origins Rûm, "Roman", after the Eastern Roman Empire.

Royal Family of Mauretania

The monument was built in 3 BC by the last King of Numidia, and later King of Mauretania, Juba II, and his wife Cleopatra Selene II. Cleopatra Selene II was an Egyptian Greek Ptolemaic Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman Triumvir Mark Antony. Through her marriage to Juba II, she became the last Queen of Numidia and later Queen of Mauretania. princess, the daughter of the Queen

The mausoleum is probably the Royal Tomb that the 1st-century Roman geographer Pomponius Mela (1.31) described as the monumentum commune regiae gentis ("the communal mausoleum of the royal family"). If the geographer’s description of the mausoleum is correct, then the building was not intended just for Juba and Cleopatra, but envisaged as a dynastic funeral monument for their royal descendants.

The Mauretanian Mausoleum looks similar to the Mausoleum built by the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, in Rome. Augustus began constructing his mausoleum between 29 BC-27 BC, some time before Juba II left Rome to return to Numidia. The similarity of the Mauretanian monument with Augustus' own tomb was deliberate, and sent a clear political message of loyalty and allegiance by the Mauretanian client kingdom to Rome.

Construction

The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania is a common type of ancient mausoleums found in Numidia. The architectural type of the monument originates from the various Ancient Greek mausoleums from Anatolia and Egypt. It is built on a hill some 250 metres or 756 feet above sea level. The monument is entirely built from stone, while its main structure is in a circular form with a square base topped by a cone or a pyramid. The square base measures 60 to 60.9 metres square or 200 to 209 foot. The height of the monument was originally about 40 metres or 130’ in height. Due to damage that the mausoleum has suffered from natural elements and vandalism, the monument now measures 30-32.4 metres in height. The base of the monument was decorated with 60 Ionic columns whose capitals were removed, possibly stolen. Inside the centre of the mausoleum has two vaulted chambers, separated by a short passage connected by a gallery outside by stone doors which can be moved up and down by levers. The passage leading to the chambers are about 500’. One chamber measures 142 feet long by 11 feet broad and is 11 left high, while the other is smaller.

Under the Arabs and French

In 1555 the Pasha of Algiers, Salah Rais, gave orders to pull down the mausoleum. After large black wasps swarmed out and stung some of the workers to death however, the effort was abandoned. At the end of the 18th century, Baba Mahommed tried in vain to destroy the monument with artillery. Later, when the French occupied Algeria the monument was used by the French Navy for target practice.

Recognition and conservation of the Mausoleum

The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania is a part of a unique archeological site along the road from Cherchell to Tipaza. On this archeological site, there are various monuments and infrastructure that has survived from the Phoenician (see also Carthage National Museum), Roman, Early Christianity and Byzantine periods. This group of ruins that are located along the Mediterranean Sea were recognized and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Although these archeological remains including the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania are protected, the ruins located between Cherchell and Tipaza face constant threats from constant urban construction and expansion; open sewage drainage run offs; poor maintenance and constant vandalism. Due to these ongoing problems, these archaeological remains face an uncertain future.

The local authorities have failed and had problems implementing a 1992 ‘Permanent Safeguarding and Presentation Plan’ an effective management program in preserving these ruins. In 2001, the World Heritage Site provided emergency assistance for this archaeological site. In 2002, experts from UNESCO went to visit the site and to the condition of the ruins, the archeological site has been placed on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.