Hydria Virtual Museum: Water management systems in the past

Setting

Dellys or Tedellîs is a coastal city on the northern coast of the Algerian near the mouth of the River Sebaou, located 50 km from the city of Boumerdes and 100 km east of the capital Algiers.

The city extends to 50.6 km ² and has a population of ~ 30.000 inhabitants. The principal activities of the area are fishing and farming. Just as the colour blue dominates the landscape and seascape of Dellys the sea dominates the lives of its inhabitants, that is why many people from Dellys become sailors and navigators. The climate is exceptionally mild.

Dellys was originally a Phoenician (punic) founding of the 4^th century BC. For ancient navigation, mainly during the summer, Dellys was a suitable port. Actually it was the only relatively sheltered anchorage between Algiers (ancient Icosium) and Bejaia (ancient Saldae). The Romans later formed an institution called Rusuccurus (=Rusuccuru means in Punic the “cape of the fish”) and became a powerful city under the reign of Emperor Claudius (41 – 54 AD).

The city lies today on a veritable kingdom of sandstones. The sandstones are only sand that has been consolidated 20 million years ago and gave to the rock this very fine texture, gray or somewhat tan, with which, the whole Kasbah was built. The terrain is steep and it is easy to clean and prevent flooding problems.

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