The ancient ruins of Djemila, located in northeastern Algeria, represent the most important Roman archaeological site in North Africa. Originally named “Cuicul” in 96 or 97 A.D./C.E. when the Roman emperor Nerva built and established it as a Roman colony, Djemila (“beautiful” in Arabic) has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1982. The primary research objective at these ruins was to explain the major decay patterns observed, and the related processes affecting the hard grey-striped limestone widely used in the construction of the city. Mineralogical, petrophysical, and mechanical tests were performed on samples of this limestone collected from both the ancient city and the original quarry using different tools (XRD, XRF, SEM-EDX, etc.) and methods. Results obtained show that this stone has a high compressive strength with very low porosity and capillary absorption. The linear thermal coefficient showed a marked difference between the matrix and the veinlet of the same sampled stone. Hence, exposure over many centuries to strong climatic variations due to the typical Mediterranean climate of Northeastern Algeria naturally resulted in the characteristic yet spectacular decay patterns exhibited on the stone, namely cracks, fractures, contour scaling, large fragmentation, and delamination, as well as orange patina and lichens. The main effective parameters involved are temperature variations (thermal gradient), along with the wet–dry cycles resulting from climatic changes, and insolation decay due to the extreme radiant energy. These factors work in conjunction with the heterogeneity of the stone (presence of the calcite veinlets on the matrix) causing a fatigue phenomenon which, in turn, catalyzes deterioration patterns.

杰米拉古遗址位于阿尔及利亚东北部，是北非最重要的罗马考古遗址。最初在公元 96 年或公元 97 年被命名为“Cuicul”，当时罗马皇帝 Nerva 建造并建立了它作为罗马殖民地，Djemila（阿拉伯语中的“美丽”）自 1982 年以来已被列入联合国教科文组织世界遗产名录。主要研究目标在这些废墟中，是为了解释观察到的主要衰变模式，以及影响城市建设中广泛使用的硬灰色条纹石灰石的相关过程。使用不同的工具（XRD、XRF、SEM-EDX 等）和方法对从古城和原始采石场收集的这种石灰岩样品进行了矿物学、岩石物理和力学测试。获得的结果表明，这种石头具有很高的抗压强度，具有非常低的孔隙率和毛细吸收率。线性热系数表明同一样品的基体和细脉之间存在显着差异。因此，由于阿尔及利亚东北部典型的地中海气候，几个世纪以来暴露在强烈的气候变化中，自然会导致石头上呈现出独特而壮观的腐烂模式，即裂缝、断裂、轮廓缩放、大碎片和分层，以及橙色古色和地衣。所涉及的主要有效参数是温度变化（热梯度）、气候变化引起的干湿循环以及极端辐射能引起的日照衰减。