Tunisia - The Punic Wars

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 aftefacts and Paleochrisitian baptisteries.

In the afternoon, we explore Carthage, now a wealthy suburb of Tunis but scattered with the ancient remains of the once mighty Phoenician city.  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 -  and 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 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 south east to El Djem.  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 Jem, which has a wonderful collection of mosaics, as well as in situ houses, which provide glimpses of the city’s wealth.  This afternoon we return to Kairouan to visit the Great Mosque which has a plethora of reused Roman pillars and lintels and explore the city’s medina.

We start the day by continuing our exploration of 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.

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.  We will then continue north to Hammamet.

Today we drive along the Cap Bon Peninsula, the point of Tunisia which is closest to Sicily. The morning will be spent at Kerkouane, a UNESCO World Heritage Site overlooking the sea.  Kerkouane was inhabited from the seventh to the third century BC and was abandoned after the First Punic War, making it the only purely Punic site in Africa. The highlights of this site are the houses which typically contain bathtubs waterproofed with a pinkish mortar. We will also see remains of Punic industry, as well as an enigmatic sanctuary. Afterwards, we will visit the site museum which has interesting remains from the nearby necropolis. We will have a picnic on site here before travelling to Nabeul; today famed for its ceramics but in antiquity a trading port founded by Cyrene. On arrival here we visit the small museum to see intriguing mosaics, and to read about the production of garum in the area. 

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 hill top, 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.

Today we drive further north to visit the city of Bulla Regia, made the Numidian capital by Massinissa. Here we explore a bath complex, as well as a series of houses, replete with mosaics, which have underground rooms, offering their elite owners protection from the African heat. These houses include the impressive House of the Hunt and the House of Amphitrite. We return to Tunis stopping on the way to visit the little-known and largely unexcavated site of Ain Tounga and the small town of Testour, where we will admire some of the best examples of Andalusian architecture found anywhere in Tunisia.

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