Dougga and Sbeitla are ruins of two Roman cities. Dougga was until very recently completely buried in a mountainside, and was quite well preserved -- it is presented pretty much as it was found. It's located near the the pleasant mountain town of Le Kef.

Sbeitla is out in the plains and it was reconstructed as much as possible to illustrate how archeologists think it might have looked.

The road from Tunis to Le Kef was mostly farmland with rolling hills. We found a stretch of new freeway that wasn't on our map, but very soon we had to go back to the old road.

The theater at Dougga, with our very helpful, knowledgeable, and nice guide onstage. Besides the big things common to most Roman cities (a theater like this for plays; an amphitheater for gladiators; thermal baths; forums and temples; houses and shops), he pointed out many smaller things that we continued to see elsewhere on the trip, like chariot ruts and drainage cleanouts.

Chariot ruts. Notice that these are not the same distance apart as US railroad tracks, and never were.

The temple.

A game board.

Dougga is so well preserved because it was buried for thousands of years under the mountain these olive trees are growing on. You can see the enormous cisterns holding the water supply for the city.

Most fancy houses in all Roman cities had mosaic floors. The more representational mosaics in Tunisia were usually shipped off to the Bardo, and the more geometric ones were allowed to remain on site.

This is a communal toilet located in a brothel in Dougga. People of both sexes would use it simultaneously, but were covered up as they did so. Or, that was the guide's story. The trough in front contained water for washing.

Here's a slightly blurry picture of one of several carrot trucks we saw resupplying the ravenous carrot consumers of Tunis.

A residential street in Le Kef, a charming mountain town near Dougga. This is about the point on an eclipse trip that you start getting really tired of overcast weather. A few more sights in Le Kef...

A decommissioned olive press in Sbeitla.

The Three Temples in Sbeitla, dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.

A baptismal font in Sbeitla. All it lacks are massage jets. Surely the baptismal fonts at the Crystal Palace in Garden Grove have massage jets.

Detail of a column capital.

The space underneath the caldarium, or hot bath, where hot air circulated to heat the water.

Sbeitla appears to be aggressively landscaped -- there were many workers there weeding and pruning.

A grasshopper. You thought Dali was drawing those grasshopper skulls from his imagination didn't you?

On to Tozeur