Twisted Times In Tunisia
October 1994
We got a cheapie package tour to Tunisia in order to explore the ruins and sights. I was nursing what I thought was a sprained ankle from the Nottingham marathon, the weekend before, and limping badly. It turned out that I had broken my leg!
Saturday Oct 1st - Monastir
We had a 7am flight to Monastir from Birmingham Airport,and the plane was full of Brummie tourists, shellsuits and drinks all around. We arrived in glorious sunshine around 10am at Monastir's Habib Bourgiba Airport, surrounded by flat salt plains on the eastern seaboard. The Hotel Tanit was a downmarket, sports orientated hotel right on the beach next to the bigger hotels. The comfortable, but plain rooms were in collective blocks away from the main part, right behind the sanddunes and beach - a good 5 minute walk to the dining room, but away from the (we discovered quickly) terrible evening entertainment. With the prospect of a 'dry country' and expensive hotel drinks, we had brought in 2 litres of gin and tonic water complete with lemons. Straight down the beach for some sunbathing, swimming in lovely blue water. Paragliders soared around above windsurfers. Tourists on horses and camels got led past. d them.
Later in the afternoon, I hobbled out of the hotel compound, past the guards, to the main highway. A local woman explained I could catch a 'louage' (communal taxi). She flagged one down and I climbed in. 10 minutes later and 35 pence later (1 diram = 75p) I was in the centre of Monastir. Despite a fine history as a ancient port, the Medina had been mostly demolished to encompass wide streets and shops. I walked through to the Ribal to take a look at the outside and then on to the Bourgiba Mausoleum. This is a monument built to the first president of Tunisia. A large gold leaf dome between two minarets. I could only view it through vast gates. Along side was the Cemetery of Sidi El Mezeri which was strange to walk through. It was just a reconnaissance trip for me, to see if I got hassled like we did in Morocco (no problems).
Sunday Oct 2nd - El Jem
I felt that a Sunday would be a good day to visit Tunis, the capital when it was at its quietest, but we did not know how we would get there. We got up at dawn, grabbed a quick breakfast and caught a taxi to Sousse, about 15mins north up the coast, the major tourist town. This would be our transportation centre all week. The taxi dropped us in the centre at the taxi/louages parking area, and we walked to the train station 5 mins away. we had missed the early train and there was nothing until the afternoon. So we checked the timetable and found a train going south to El Jem at 9.30am so we climbed aboard. Only one other tourist couple amongst the locals. It was an hour or so down through dry arid land. The train was smooth and on time.
El Jem is an enigma. The town itself is a market town for local farm produce with no tourist office, and one hotel. Yet it has the best preserved Roman amphitheatre in the world, more impressive than the one in Rome though slightly smaller. This huge edifice is visible for miles in every direction across the flat and semi-arid landscape and totally overshadows the town, yet has so far escaped commercial exploitation of any kind. We could see the monument as soon as we got off the train and walked down the main street with dusty shops either side. The oval amphitheatre or coliseum is 149m long by 124m wide and stands 36m high. Building began around the end of the 2nd century AD and lasted 30 years. The structure could hold between 30,000 and 35,000 people which was the entire population of the city of Thysdrus, though there are a mere 12,000 people in today's El Jem.
Thysdrus was on an important trade route and the production of olive oil financed it along with many villas. The enormity of the coliseum is impressive in the extreme, mainly because there is nothing else for miles to detract from its size, and this despite the disastrous explosion of 1695 when Mohammed Bey destroyed the north side to drive out supporters of his rival to the throne. The townspeople benefited from the incident by having plentiful supply of ready quarried building stone. We walked past a local restaurateur begging our custom in a friendly way and paid 2 dirams (£1.50) to enter under huge arches into the centre of the arena where steps led down to the tunnel which gave access to the cells where unarmed humans were held before being thrown to the lions on centre stage. We explored the mysterious tunnels and cells, before climbing 99 steps on the south side, up 4 levels 27m to near the top for some quiet sunbathing and to take in the place at leisure and let our imaginations run wild. It was a gloriously hot day with clear blue skies and a view for miles over the entire area. Prisoners of war, slaves, bankrupts, criminals and Christians were all considered fair game to be cast into the arena and there to fight to the death against a gladiator armed with sword and trident. Or to be torn apart by lions.
Then we walked on to the local museum which held an impressive display of mosaics from ancient Thysdrus, mainly still completely intact. The masterpiece was a finely preserved work showing two lions killing a wild boar. We returned to the cafe and ordered lunch. A fiery Mechouia Salad and Brik d'oeuf (fried egg and tuna in a crispy batter). We had to catch a 2.30pm train back to Sousse and had a quick look at the market (packed with tourists). We stopped at a bakery for some cake and almond juice and had an interesting talk with the owner about Tunisia and which places to avoid, before catching a louage back to the hotel for sunbathing until dinner.
Monday Oct 3rd - Kairouan
Now that we knew that we could get louages almost anywhere, we returned to Sousse the next morning. The trip to Sousse was through pretty ugly scenes - a vast electric powerstation between the hotel areas and the town. Since it was Monday morning, the roads were busy and we noticed police checks everywhere which we hadn't seen on Sunday. Asking the driver what was happening, he told us it was usual to see police everywhere, stopping people to check their papers and state of the cars. Cars were a luxury in Tunisia and we saw more taxis and louages than cars throughout our stay. At the louages meeting point we found one going to Kairouan our destination for the day. Our car had 5 passengers (including us) and a driver. They were spacious Peugeot estates in different states of repair. En route on a pretty clear road we passed many police before the driver was flagged down, his papers and car checked. They didn't like the fact that there were no inside door handles and booked him. Once they let him go, I had to jump out and help push start the car. They obviously drove them into the ground. The trip cost us 6dm between us.
Kairouan is the holiest city in Islam after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem built after 670AD in an open featureless plain inland west, an hour from Sousse. It was built for religious reasons, but the location did have some strategic advantages. It was far enough from the coast to deter Byzantine raiders, far enough from the mountains to deter Berbers, and no advancing army could hide on this treeless plain. In the 9C, Kairouan grew to become the most important city between Fez and the Nile, with palaces and other buildings appropriate to its status.
We were dropped just outside the vast walls of the old Medina near the Great Mosque and tried to find the tourist office where you purchased a ticket to visit all the sites (2dm). We ended up walking around one half of the imposing walls to find the tourist office had moved, (which wore out my injured leg and left me limping badly) so we entered the Medina through one of the gates and started searching for the sites. After visiting Fez last year, we had good experience of finding our way around the barrow lanes. It was also not nearly so complicated or intense. It was also a pleasant surprise not to get hassled by prospective guides. There were none and we were never approached.
Our first stop was the little mosque Zaouia of Sidi Arid El Ghariani and the guardian let us in without a ticket. He also took us on a little tour which we tipped him for. The mosque was built in the 14C but commemorates a holy man who died around 1402 and whose remains are a filigree-decorated tomb just off an impressive court. It was a beautifully detailed mosque. The Mosque of Three Doors was nearby, but it took a while for us to find it hidden down a passage. We had to ask quite a few locals where it was. It had only just been restored and was not open to the public but you could see marvellous 9C Arab inscriptions on the facade. Onwards though the maze we found the Great Mosque. The guardian said we needed a ticket and told us where the tourist office now was - a kilometre away, but when he saw me limping away, he called back to let us in by selling the ticket we sought for 2D. After the third attempt to build it in the 9C, it truly deserves the title of Great Mosque, for its trapezoid shape is 135m long by 80m wide, and 50 stone columns surrounding the courtyard support the porticoes. The courtyard has two large cisterns in the centre to catch some of the meagre 300mm of rain which falls here in the average year, hauled up by leather buckets. The 35m high tapering minaret on the north side is claimed to be the world's oldest Islamic minaret. Cedar doors on the southern side of the court lead into the prayer chamber which has 17 naves and many columns of marble and porphyry supporting its expansive roof. Legend has it, that you will stuck blind if you attempt to count the (600 plus) columns inside.
We walked back thorough the Medina into the Kasbar for lunch out on the sidewalk. Nearby was the Bir Barrouta which is an ancient waterpump powered by a blindfolded camel which spends it day walking around in a circle. Our final sight was the Zaouia of Sidi Saheb, also known as the Mosque of the Barber. The existing building dates from 1629. The First Court leads through a darkened room to the Patio of the Medersa, a beautiful little enclosed area where small boys are still circumcised, to a Second Court and prayer chamber. An old woman lay on the floor looking for change from visitors.
I could hardly walk by now. We waited for a bus to take us back to the louage area, but one stopped for us and we headed back to Sousse. We had another wander through the markets, and I found a barber. It had been 6 years in Turkey, since I had had a proper shave with a long razor. I was creamed up and shaved but I didn't get the flame under the nose. I did however experience the strange ritual of having cheekbone hairs remove by a cotton strand , held in the barber's teeth. It was strange and enjoyable and I tipped him well for the 2dm shave. Back to the hotel, where we were told to move to another block, because our hot water did not work. We think our neighbours complained about our alarm clock going off so early so they moved us into our own complex. We had the last laugh though, when we found out they had had cold water all week.
Tuesday Oct 4th - Monastir
After two hectic days of sightseeing, we spent time on the beach for sunbathing and reading. In the afternoon, the sun disappeared and we caught a louage into Monastir to see the Ribat. This wonderful monument stands by the sea and has been used extensively for Biblical films, including the 'Life of Brian'. Monastir has been of strategic importance throughout its history. Caesar began his conquest of Africa here and when Kairouan went into spiritual decline, Monastir briefly succeeded it. The Ribat, begun in 796, has had so many restorations over the centuries that only the masonry of the north, east and west corners is original. There were endless levels of cells, tunnels, holes. We climbed the tower to look over the town and the Bourgiba Mausoleum. An enjoyable afternoon, finishing with the small museum. Only a few tourists shared it with us. The walls were thick and pulsated with history.
Up the road from the hotel, a bunch of camelherders touted for custom. I hadn't had a camel ride since Australia in 1985, and fancied one. The camel herder tried to encourage me to do a half an hour ride, but it wasn't exactly scenic. I just wanted a quick photo and gallop. He tried to get me off on a long ride, but I turned him round and refused to pay his quote. Returning to the hotel for G&Ts before dinner, we were witness to an horrendous thunderstorm which flew down on us for hours. It blew every light in the hotel complex. I walked in for dinner to find candles everywhere. I had to stagger back to our dark room, through rain of biblical proportions and got soaked.
Wednesday Oct 5th - Tunis, Sidi Bou Sidi & Carthage
I wanted to do Tunis and got up at dawn and caught a taxi to Sousse, and then a louage to Tunis (12dm). We drove up the new motorway in a car that overheated en route. The driver would fill up the radiator then lob the empty plastic bottle into the desert. Everything went out of the window. Noone gave a shit. Police stood at regular intervals to monitor the sparse traffic. It was a pleasant surprise to see hills on the horizon as we drove north. But it was sand all the way.
Tunis is a major north African city, becoming a capital in 894 and at one time outshining Cairo. It has seen Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Berbers, Arabs, Turks, Spanish, French, Germans and British come as invaders, protectors or liberators. It is a modern European styled city built by the French, but its core is still the old Arab Medina. Not a tourist centre in its own right it nonetheless has access to Cartage, one of the three great cities of antiquity, and it has a museum of international importance.
The louage terminated at the Bab Jedid, a confusing turmoil of taxis, louages and buses. I was a little disorientated but asking around someone pointed me towards the Medina. I found the surrounding walls and entered. Eventually a stall owner led me to the Great Mosque. I had come in from the opposite end to the guide book's directions. My leg was very sore and I was forced to pick the sights I wanted to see, rather than my usual walk everywhere and eventually you will find style of travelling. The Jamaa Ez Zitonia or Great Mosque (of the olive tree), is an impressive building almost lost in the press of souks around it. The oldest Mosque in Tunis, it was founded in 732 as an assembly hall, used for prayers, for teaching the Koran, and ultimately as a university. I entered to find that it was similar but not as impressive as the one in Kairouan. There were many more tourists in it and the souks were full of Germans being hounded by stall owners. They were more forceful than I had found up to now. I explored the darkened alleys of souks, before deciding I wasn't there to buy anything I should head for Carthage, my main aim.
The Rue Jamaa Zitouna was easy to follow out of the Medina. It was straight. But it was jam packed with Germans, so tight, I couldn't get through them at many points. Very frustrating, especially with my aching leg. I made it to the Place de la Victoire (Victory Square). I walked along the Avenue de France, the start of the new French town that had been built next to the Medina for administrative purposes, and into the boulevard of Avenue Habib Bourgiba, the main poser strip, with all the major shops, airline offices and car rentals etc. It was a long walk for my leg and hot and dusty in the morning traffic. I finally reached the TGM station by the edge of the lake, where an overland commuter train (0.5dm) took me across the lake to Cartage along the edge of the Gulf of Tunis.
I had read that there was not much of Carthage left, and stayed on the train to Sidi Bou Said. I didn't see one ruin en route. It was a lovely sunny day with locals an their shopping, an school kids daring each other to hang onto the outside of the train between stations that were minutes apart. The undulating suburbs were attractive white houses with lush vegetation everywhere. A generation ago, Sidi Bou Said was the St Tropez of Tunisia, now outpaced by Hammamet (which I stopped at on the way to Tunis), but it is still a town with some charm, despite the bus loads of tourists that are dropped there to go shopping. I explored the cobbled streets with the lovely azure blue black studded doors everywhere. The heat was ferocious. One local with a bird of prey touted for photos.
Catching a train south, I got out at Carthage Dermach and walked up the hill to the National Archaeological museum. Pestered by locals to buy 'antiquities' I entered to find sparse remains of the forum and a few ruins. I walked down the other side of the hill, past the great cisterns (now with modern housing built among them) to the Amphitheatre, which was unimpressive. I haggled with an old man to buy a couple of 'relics' for a few pence. He fended off other children with the same idea. Policemen were based at every roundabout (the Presidential palace was nearby - I saw it from a distance at Sidi Bou Said). When I asked one for directions, he gave me a swig of his coke bottle. I stumbled across the other sites by accident, a Roman theatre, now rebuilt and not worth taking a picture, some ruined villas, a few erected columns and the Antonine Baths (the largest Roman baths in Africa - but again not very photogenic).
My parents had warned me it was a disappointment and they were right. The original Carthage had been destroyed by the Romans and their own monuments had been pulled apart to provide building materials for the locals through the ages. Time was getting on. I reached the local station back to the centre, then caught a No 5 bus to the Bardo Museum. This museum has a world-wide reputation for the quality and quantity of its exhibits, many of them from archaeological digs in Tunisia. It was a large building of three floor full of Roman mosaics, moved there from all the major Roman sites. The quantity was overwhelming, but I have to admit that the museum in El Jem had equally impressive mosaics. The museum was full of tour groups and I fought my way through them. I felt I covered everything in an hour. The guidebooks suggest at least a day.
My leg was aching. I opted for a taxi back to the louages. There was a struggle to get me into various cars, but eventually I was put into the first in line. A very comfortable journey back in a modern space buggy, with the occupants laughing away at a comedy radio show. Back in Sousse, it was rush hour and it took a while to find transport back to the hotel for a well rewarded dinner.
Thursday Oct 6th - Sousse
We decided to head for Sousse to do visit it properly and buy our souvenirs. In Sousse, we visited our local money changer whom we had met before. A small timid man with mole like eyes behind jamjar bottom glasses, he was very educated and could discuss history with us. The Place Farhat Hached is the unrivalled centre of Sousse which we had seen everyday on our travels. In 219BC, Hannibal planned his attack on Rome from here (with elephants). In 827, the Islamic conquerors sailed to attack Sicily across the Mediterranean Sea. The Normans seized the port in the 12C, the Spanish took it in the 16C and the French bombarded it in the 18C before becoming its colonial masters. Modern Sousse, the so called 'Pearl of the Sahel' is an industrial city specialising in food processing, textiles and assembling motor vehicles. But in the last 20 years Sousse has become the tourist capital of Tunisia with hotels lining the coast both north and south.
The Medina is a very well preserved medieval city that has survived all attacks except that of tourism. The Great Mosque is the most impressive feature just inside the Medina gates. Built like a fortress in 851, it has recently been faithfully restored to its 11C appearance. From there, we walked across the square to the Ribat, built at the same time and with the same purpose, the defence of the medina's main entrance against marauding Christians. It is of necessity a gaunt place around 30m square, and is acknowledged to be the best example of its type in North Africa. Inside we saw the cells in which the marabouts lived in periods of peace, while the battlements parapet with its lookout tower shows it was also a formidable fortress. The first floor prayer hall recently opened is claimed to be the oldest surviving mosque in north Africa still in its original form. With the main sights out of the way (we had toured the Kasbar earlier in the week), we explored the markets. It was interesting to watch the psychology of selling techniques. Shopping over, we returned to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon on the beach.
Friday Oct 7th - Dougga
Up at the crack of dawn to get a 6am taxi to Sousse to find a tour bus. Dougga was across the other side of the country and it made more sense both financially and logistically to take an organised tour there. Our taxi driver didn't know where the pick up point was, but we found it eventually, meeting a pleasant old plump English doctor also on the trip who took a look at my swollen leg ('get yourself to hospital for an X-ray'). The bus picked us up, and we spent a further hour visiting what seemed like every hotel in Sousse to pick up German tourists. Eventually we were on our way to Zaghouan. It felt strange to be chauffeured around with a Tunisian tour guide who gave us chit chat in German and English and later in French.
Zaghouan is dominated by the rugged peak of Jebel Zaghouan, a 1,295m tall grey granite outcrop that looks as if it belongs in the Dolomites or the centre of France. At a toilet stop we walked to the remaining roman triumphal arch and climbed to look over the plains. The romans built an aqueduct from here to Carthage. The Tebessa Mountains which roll in from Algeria mark what people expect of inland Tunisia - treeless, somewhat featureless, and subject to intense summer heat.
Our first major stop was Thuburbo Majus which the Romans chose as their site for a colony of their veterans, superseding an old Berber village. The Vandals destroyed most of it, but the remains are still impressive. Entering the site from the north, you first notice the restored Capitol, otherwise known as the Temple of Jupiter (father of light who controlled thunder and lightening). His temple was built in 168AD and was originally the most impressive capitol building in North Africa. We went exploring on our own, ignoring the local hasslers. I took in the forum, the oddly shaped Temple of Mercury, the winter and summer baths, various mosaics, and the cisterns on the outskirts. It was all a rush. We had 45 mins and I flew around the site.
Dougga, about half an hour away has the most impressive ruins after the coliseum of El Jem, and its Capitol features on a number of posters advertising Tunisia. They are the largest of Tunisia's Roman sites and lie about 6km from Theboursouk. It was built (starting 205AD) on the existing 4th Century BC Phoenician city of Thugga. It has been excavated since the 19C and the British Museum holds some of its treasures. The city occupies a gently sloping ill ranging from 500 - 600m in altitude, not the kind of location the Romans would have chosen though it offers a commanding view across the countryside. The most impressive building by far is that much illustrated Capitol, a temple dedicated to the trinity of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva who were jointly the protectors of the Roman state. Built in 166AD, it has been restored to an excellent state of repair and exists in all its three dimensions, unlike the two-dimensional ground plans that are so often all there is to see on many ancient sites. The building not only dominates the city but the valley.
After admiring it, we attempted to take in everything else, leaving the escorted tour to crawl around a few of them. To the left of the Capitol steps is the Compass of the Winds, a public square. To the right, the Forum. Several temples face the Compass square - the Temple of Mercury, the Temple of August Piety and the temple of Fortune. Beyond this town centre complex other buildings, mostly two dimensional, extend for a kilometre across the site. The Trefoil House was the brothel of Roman times. The Cyclops baths next door still had a 12 seat communal toilet. The Licinian Baths nearby were entered through imposing tunnels. West of the town centre stands the Temple of Juno Calaestis, the Queen of Heaven. Built in 222AD, it is in a semicircular plot, another instance of the Romans of Dougga diverting from their established style. We returned up the hill to the Theatre, then up on the hilltop behind to the Temple of Saturn whose skyline columns overlook the road where we found the bus. We only had an hour and were sweating from running around. We needed a day there to take it all in.
Saturday Oct 8th
It was a shame my leg had not allowed me to try out the windsurfing and paragliding, and I felt that there was certainly another weeks worth of exploration had we not been tied down to one hotel. As it was, we were off home. Picking up the car, we drove to Worcester Hospital, where, after an X-ray, I was informed that I fractured my right leg, which explained my pain and limping. I should have had a plaster cast put on it, but it was healing and they just gave me a pair of crutches.
My overall impression of Tunisia was more favourable than Morocco. The locals were friendly, and non hassling generally. There was a wealth of historical sights, both Roman and Arab that were impressive. The food was acceptable, the transportation network excellent. An enjoyable trip worth recommending.
