Dougga - Temple of Saturn

The magnificently situated Temple of Saturn in Dougga was built in A.D. 195 on the site of a pre-Roman temple of Baal (a few ash-urns and funerary stelae from which were found by the excavators). At the east end is a vestibule with four Corinthian columns; the inner courtyard is surrounded on three sides by a Corinthian portico; and at the west end are three cellae. In a cistern under the courtyard was found the head of the cult statue of Saturn, which presumably stood in the central cella (it is now in the Bardo National Museum in Tunis). The cella on the south side has preserved part of its stucco-covered vaulting. Below the temple is a hypogeum, an underground burial-place entered by a flight of seven steps, originally in a pagan cemetery.