We spent twelve days in Tunisia, touring Tunis, the capital, and the Roman ruins of Dougga and Sbeitla and El Jem. We saw an annular solar eclipse in the desert oasis of Tozeur, saw the scenery that inspired (and appeared in) Star Wars near Tataouine, and spent a day in Kairouan, the holiest Islamic city in Africa.
Tunis
Tunis is the bustling capital city of Tunisia. It's near the ancient site of Carthage, its Bardo museum has the most valuable artifacts from all over the country, and its medina is a World Heritage site. More pictures...
Dougga and Sbeitla
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. More pictures...
Tozeur
We drove to Tozeur, an oasis at the edge of the Sahara, to see an annular solar eclipse. It has the second largest palmeraie (palm tree "orchard") in Tunisia. The day before the eclipse, we went for a ride on the Lézard Rouge, a cute tourist train that goes through a gorge, and drove to some other small scenic mountain oases. More pictures...
Tataouine
Tataouine is an area of visually striking architecture not that unlike Cappadocia in Turkey. There are "cave houses" dug into the soft rock, "Berber ksour" (ruins of villages built atop mountains), and "Arabic ksour" (ruins of complexes of grain storage units). These all inspired George Lucas to film many scenes of Star Wars in the area and to name a city in the story after it. More pictures...
El Jem and Kairouan
We had two days to get back to our overnight ferry from Tunis to Malta. The first day we saw the huge Roman amphitheater, and more impressive mosaics, in El Jem. We spent the night in Kairouan, getting a tour the following morning. The rest of the day was spent driving past interesting and picturesque places. More pictures...
