No Romans ever settled in this region. The mausoleum, dated to the second half of the 3rd century or the early 4th century AD, belonged to a Romanized Numidian family -- perhaps a governor of the ancient settlement of Ausium. The distinction matters: this is not Roman colonial architecture imposed from abroad, but the work of a local elite that adopted Roman building techniques and aesthetic conventions while remaining rooted in their own land. The square structure measures 5.50 meters on each side, rises from a base of four steps, and once stood crowned by a pyramidion roof of carefully joined ashlar blocks. Though the upper half of that roof is lost, the monument still reaches 13 meters into the Kabyle sky.

Three of the mausoleum's four walls bear false doors carved from white marble, each framed by ribbed moldings and decorated with swastikas enclosed in circles -- an ancient geometric motif that predates any modern associations by millennia. Only the north side has a real entrance, once sealed by a stone block now missing. Above it, a marble plaque would have named the person interred within. That inscription, too, is lost, leaving the occupant anonymous across the centuries. Inside, the arrangement is unusual: a system of columns and arches stands entirely independent of the outer walls, with plaster applied behind them -- proof that the decorative coating came first and the structural columns after. The central column on each interior wall partially blocks its corresponding false door, confirming these were always symbolic thresholds between the world of the living and the dead.

The mausoleum divides vertically into two spaces. The upper chamber sits level with the entrance, its ceiling formed by the vaulted roof above. Three Ionic columns support double arches along each interior wall, though only a single original capital survives. Below, corresponding to the stepped podium visible from outside, a crypt once held the sarcophagi. A stone floor separated the two chambers until it was broken at some unknown point in history -- by grave robbers, by time, by curiosity. When Baron Henri Aucapitaine visited in 1860 as a guest of the local bachagha Ben Ali Cherif, he sketched the false doors and estimated the structure dated to the 1st century AD. Later architectural analysis pushed the date forward by two or three centuries, but his wonder at the monument's survival was well placed.

The mausoleum is unique in the region -- no comparable structures exist nearby, and no other ancient remains have been detected in the surrounding area, though a settlement may lie buried under alluvium deposited by the Soummam River over the centuries. Despite losing its roof and sustaining damage to some of its false doors, the monument remains remarkably well preserved. That preservation has not always been assured. By the early 21st century, the proximity of an active mine raised concerns about the structure's future. In 2010, the mausoleum was added to the general list of protected cultural heritage for Bejaia Province, a recognition that came late but not too late. The ground around the base has been excavated multiple times, stripped down to bedrock by generations of diggers searching for whatever secrets a seventeen-century-old tomb might still hold.