Tim­gad lies on the north­ern slopes of the Aures moun­tains and was cre­at­ed ex nihi­lo as a mil­i­tary colony by the Emper­or Tra­jan in AD 100. With its square enclo­sure and orthog­o­nal design based on the car­do and decumanus, the two per­pen­dic­u­lar routes run­ning through the city, it is an excel­lent exam­ple of Roman town plan­ning.