Visit to Tunisia (7): El Djem and Monastir
Thursday was a long but enjoyable day, starting at 9 am and finishing about 5 pm. Using Sousse as a base for local travel, we visited two historic towns.
The first was El Djem, called Thysdrus in Roman times, which is a drive of just over an hour south of Sousse.
This is the location of a Roman amphitheatre built around 200 AD with a spectator capacity of 35,000, second only in size to the one in Rome. It is one of the largest and best preserved in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I enjoyed this visit more than my visits to the Colosseum in Rome because there were so few other tourists.
Also in the town, we visited the Archaeological Museum which has a spectacular collection of original mosaics drawn from local Roman sites. There were models of the villas from which the mosaics were found, showing the original location of the various mosaics. Of course, mosaics were constructed on floors but are now displayed – more Impressively – on walls.
Next to the museum is an actual Roman house relocated and rebuilt.
Lunch was at a local hotel called Dar Ammar which, unlike our previous set lunches, was self-service. There was a menu with banana split on it and I fancied that for dessert and offered to buy one, but the hotel had no bananas. Indeed I never saw one on the entire holiday.
After lunch, it was a one hour drive north-east to Monastir
Traditionally a fishing port, Monastir is now a major tourist resort. Its population is about 90,000.
Here we visited the Ribat Fortress and three of us – including yours truly – climbed to the top of the tower. This involved taking 86 stone steps in a dark and sharply turning staircase.
Finally we visited the huge, opulent Mausoleum of Tunisia’s first president. Habib Bourguiba (1903-2000) led the country as prime minister from 1956-1957 and as president from 1957-1987.
Our guide was a big fan of Bourguiba decribing him as “this hero” and praising his early measures to promote the rights of women. But Bourguiba was a man who declared himself president for life.