Dougga, Tunisia
Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), French philosopher and Jesuit priest
The Tunisian temple honoring Tellus (also Terra Mater), ancient Roman goddess of marriage (and fertility when coupled with Ceres), survives as part of a well-preserved third-century A.D. Roman town in northern Tunisia. The arid climate of Dougga, believed to have originally been a Berber village, preserves stunning pagan temples, baths, arches, theaters, cisterns, a forum, a market, and a mausoleum.
If you are drawn to the Earth Mother Goddess or to other cults predating the Judeo-Christian era and/or would like to pray in an ancient place of great spiritual and historical significance, visit Dougga. Take a day tour from Tunis or El Kef; hire a taxi from the nearest town, Teboursouk; take the bus from El Kef, disembarking at the Nouvelle Dougga stop and walking 2.5 miles to the temple.
Explore the ruins, stopping to meditate before the capitol dedicated to Juno, Roman goddess who protected pregnant women and fetuses, delivering them into the light. Pray for fertility of mind, body, or spirit—for yourself, a loved one, or our leaders, for our earthly home needs solutions to its many problems in order to prevent our civilization from falling as did the Romans.
Dougga’s capitol, dedicated to three Roman deities—Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva—was built in A.D. 166, and its walls (about 33 feet high) still support the breathtaking portico, where you can stand and look out over the vast desert landscape to blue-purple mountains rising far in the distance.