FAPA - TUNISIA PILGRIMAGE TOUR - arranged by Friends of the Anglican Province of Alexandria

This morning we begin with a visit to the famous Bardo Museum, situated in an old Beylical palace. It houses one of the most important collections of mosaics anywhere in the world. Highlights include the Virgil Mosaic and the Odysseus Mosaic, as well as many depicting beast hunts. There is a wonderful collection of Carthaginian artefacts and ancient Christian baptisteries, part of a small exhibition dedicated to showing the vitality of North African Christianity through its artwork. In the afternoon we visit the cliff-top village of Sidi Bou Said, named after a 13^th-century Sufi saint who spent many years of his life studying and teaching at the Zitouna Mosque in Tunis. This charming town with cobbled streets and blue-and-white houses, its architecture a mix of both Andalusian and Ottoman, is surrounded by beautiful views of the Mediterranean.

Our day starts by joining the English-speaking congregation at St. George’s for their Sunday service. St. George’s is a diverse community of many nationalities, languages, and traditions brought together by a shared commitment to “Ancient Roots & Renewed Lives”. We will worship with them, join them for lunch and delve deeper into their faith stories and journey to St. George’s. Revd Frank Bernardi will introduce us to other ministries in and around Tunis, where the Church lives out its vision: Passionate worship, Radical Discipleship, Uncompromising Love.

Today we explore Carthage, the birthplace of Tertullian and the home of Bishop Cyprian (and visit his Basilica) and now a wealthy suburb of Tunis but scattered with the ancient remains of the once mighty Phoenician city. Perpetua and Felicity were martyred in the amphitheatre. Augustine of Hippo called a conference of Bishops at the Baths of Gargilius to refute the Donatist heresy. We start at Byrsa Hill, once the citadel and central feature of the Punic settlement – there are fantastic views over the modern city from here. This is the site of the forum where the Scillitan Martyrs were condemned to death for their faith in AD180. We continue with the disquieting Salambo Tophet, a cemetery which contained the remains of children who were sacrificed to Tanit, after they were already dead, or more likely, as live victims. We also visit the Cothon, or harbour, testament to Carthage’s famous maritime might and explore the Roman Antonine Baths, one of the largest in the whole of the Roman empire.

We make the long drive to Dougga today, one of the best-preserved and famous ancient sites in North Africa, enlisted as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. Located in the Tunisian hinterland, in a wonderfully fertile plan, ancient Thugga was a Numidian site, located on a hilltop, in a defensible position. Evidence of its Numidian origin can be seen in its extensive circuit wall, as well as the magnificent Mausoleum of Ateban, located on the bottom of the hill and which can be seen from afar. That said, the site we see today belongs to the prosperous period of the Roman empire, when Africa was the breadbasket of Rome. Walking down the winding streets, we will start out with the wonderfully preserved theatre, and meander down to the fantastic Capitolium, past walls hastily erected in the Byzantine period in order to protect the city against Arab invaders. Further down the hill, we will explore bath complexes, one complete with an intact latrine, houses and sanctuaries – all in the kind of peace no longer found on European sites. Dougga is truly one of the best Roman sites in the world and one you will never forget, but ancient Thugga seems to have resisted the advance of Christianity so there are few Christian remains beyond the ruins of the 4^th century Victoria church.

We journey south to the delightful and little visited site of Thuburbo Majus. Originally Punic (though it has a characteristic Th sound associated with Numidian cities), the city was later re-founded as a Roman veteran colony in the Augustan period. Here we will explore the forum, dominated by the Capitolium, before moving on to the Winter Baths and Summer Baths. In between the two, there is the well-preserved Palaestra of Petronius, which belonged to the Summer Baths, and a memorable latrine. We walk up to view some temples with a Punic flavour: the Temple of Baalit and Temple of Caelestis, both Romanised names of Punic goddesses. Later this afternoon, we travel to Kairouan, Tunisia’s most important religious city, founded by the Umayyads in the seventh century AD.

Today we make our way southeast to El Djem, once the seat of the Bishop of Thysdrus. Originally a Numidian city called Thysdrus, El Djem was particularly wealthy in the second century AD and into the late antique period when it was an olive oil production centre. On the back of this wealth, the city built several amphitheatres, the most important of which was built in the third century AD and is one of the largest in the empire. We will explore this huge structure – visible for miles – and continue to the museum of El Djem, which has a wonderful collection of mosaics, as well as in situ houses, which provide glimpses of the city’s wealth.

We start the day Tunisia’s most important religious city, namely Kairouan. Founded by the Umayyads in the seventh century AD, the city quickly became important as a centre of Islamic scholarship and as a pilgrimage site. We explore the city by foot, starting from our hotel, which used to be part of the city’s kasbah, or fortress. Our exploration includes a visit to the Great Mosque which has a plethora of reused Roman pillars and lintels and explore the city’s medina. Later, we travel to Sousse to visit its museum, located in the city’s twelfth century kasbah and has the second largest collection of mosaics in the world, after the Bardo. The earliest artefacts in the museum date from the city’s Punic period, when it was called Hadrumetus. The most splendid, however, date from the prosperous Roman period, when the citizens of Hadrumetum, made rich from trade, could afford the best mosaics in the Roman empire. Here we will see mosaics which testify to this maritime background, the most famous of which is the large mosaic of Neptune on his chariot. Afterwards we travel north back to Tunis.

We take the short drive to Tunis airport for our return flight to London.