Tunisia Travel Story
This site presents a story about six Finnish travellers, who spent one week in Tunisia, in March 1998. Our group was (and is) interested in history, somewhat more than in sunbathing and/or in drinking beer (well, we think that is fun too!). Originally we made a reservation for a journey to Luxor, Egypt, for the autumn of 1997. The journey was cancelled by the travel agency, because of the terrorist attack, which took place in Luxor that very same winter . We thus were in a hurry to change our plans and to find a new place to travel to. We wanted to have sun, historical monuments, ruins and all that for less than $500 for one week. We did not have a lot of choices, and decided to travel to Tunisia. As it turned out, that was not at all a bad decision .
When we left for our travel to Tunisia we did not have any „deep“ knowledge about the country, its history or its culture, but once we made it there we found the country very interesting : lot of things to see, the ruins of Roman empire; the third biggest Amphitheatre of the world, ruined towns of Dougga, Thuburbo Majus, Carthage, Bulla Regia, Sbeitla… . These places are not „just around the corner“, but with a little time and some patience, they offer a lot to see. Best of all, most of the places have almost unrestricted access for a visitor to wander around. If you’re really interested in the history of Roman Empires, Tunisia is well worth a visit.
This site is not intended to be a complete guide with detailed information of Tunisia and its historical sites. The presented historical information, maps and descriptions are combinations of details from various history books, internet sites and travel guides (please see the links, contributions & references page). This page is our personal travel story, with which we want to share our experiences. We hope that this page will be of value for someone who is travelling to Tunisia.
Arrival
It was a Sunday, March 1st, when we were ready to exchange the snowy Finnish landscape for a (hopefully) warm and sunny Tunisia. We didn’t have to make any special arrangements before the trip: No visa needed (from Finland) and currency can be exchanged only inside Tunisia. Our knowledge about Tunisia was rather limited. From the literature we knew the capital Tunis, we had read about a stomach ailment called the Revenge of Hannibal, about the Islamic religion and finally we knew about the second highest chance to get killed by car accident (UN statistics from 1995, Tunisians have stopped releasing traffic accident statistics). And, of course, the most important thing to our history-hungry party: the knowledge that there are Ruins of the Roman Empire in Tunisia.
The flight was uneventful, and we landed at the Monastir airport at 8 p.m. After quick customs routines we moved to the travel agency bus. On our way to Sousse, our destination, at roll call, our guide found a passenger (apparently British), who did not belong in our bus. The man was totally lost; he didn’t remember his travel agency, his hotel or his destination in Tunisia. We hoped that he was in the right country. It took about 30 minutes to get to Sousse by bus.
Sousse
Sousse (or ancient Hadrumet for those of you who are history freaks) is a relatively small coast-side town about 140 kilometres south of the capital Tunis (and Carthage). Sousse is clearly divided into modern, old and tourist areas. We found Sousse to be a fairly nice, relatively clean and hospitable town. Some of the local people were clearly there because of the tourists, but if you went into either the modern or the old end of Sousse, then you found that most of the people were just living their everyday lives. In the old town (Medina) and in the bazaars some of the more enthusiastic traders were a nuisance at first, but then you get used to it. We encountered almost no beggars and only one stray pick-pocket (and that specific incident could have been easily avoided). The locals were generally hospitable, the only slight problem was the language, as French is more common than English. But if the question was of money or trade, somehow someone always succeeded to communicate clearly enough.
Samara, our hotel in Sousse, was located in the tourist area. It is an apartment-type hotel, and our reservation included three 2 person rooms. It was a pleasant surprise (although we do not know the reason) that we got three 4 person rooms. This meant that each of us had his own bedroom. The travel agency rates Samara as a three-star hotel, and everything was all right in these rooms: 2 bedrooms, sitting room, bar kitchen, bathroom, television, phone, refrigerator and a large balcony. On this first night we were quite hungry but we did not have any Tunisian currency. It was about 10.30 p.m. and the only chance to get currency was trying to find a Visa ATM or ask in the neighbouring hotels, which have a 24-hour currency exchange (our hotel changed money only during daytime). The neighbouring hotels refused to change money for others than their own customers, so we headed to the centre of town, hoping to find an ATM. We knew that there is at least one ATM there, and we also had the address , but no map. So that was quite impossible to find it at night. Luckily, we found one and got some money. The value of the Tunisian dinar is almost equal to the US$. The next thing to find was a restaurant, which could still offer something to eat. Finally we
found one, the kitchen was closed (midnight), but we managed to get something not so Tunisian food to eat: pizza. Well, it tasted as pizza does anywhere, but this was our first chance to taste Tunisian beer. The beer was served in 0.66 litre bottles, and it was called Stella. I did not personally find it very tasty, and this was, in fact, the first and only time we saw Stella beer served here. As we later learned, there are only two beers in Tunisia: Stella and Celtia, both lagers. Celtia was a much better one, though nothing special compared to what we have got used to in Finland. Anyway, we did drink lots of Celtia during the week.
In the morning the hotel served a buffet breakfast, and there was absolutely nothing to complain about. The breakfast included everything you could ask for and even more. After the breakfast we signed up for the travel agency_s Berber party, which was to be in the evening.
Catacombs
Unfortunately modern Sousse seems not to have much left of its glorious history. Hannibal, Pompeius, Julius Caesar and various others have used this town as a base for their campaigns. However, no not even ruins are left, except for some catacombs from later times.
In the morning we headed for the Christian catacombs, which are located on the south side of Sousse. We took a taxi and found out that a taxi ride is very cheap: a 10 – 15 minute taxi ride to the catacombs costs about 1 dinar. The catacombs were a bit of an disappointment for us. Nothing much to tell : about 30 meters of dungeons, very shady lighting and a couple of skeletons. The rest of the closed catacomb area is huge: 250 galleries containing up to 15000 tombs over a distance of 5 km. Flashlight recommended. Entrance 1 dinar, taking photographs an additional 1 dinar.
From the catacombs we walked to the centre of Sousse, where the old town, the so called Medina, is located. There are lots of bazaars and little shops for travellers, who enjoy to trade, and especially to bargain. We took only quick look at the Medina this time, and decided to come back later to see the Ribat (fort) and the mosque. There was a reason for this: we were hungry. The restaurants are inexpensive everywhere (at least if you have Finland to compare to. A pepper beef steak is about 5 dinars and beer about 2 dinars, and in that was included potatoes (or rice) and salad.
Berber Party
In the evening our travel agency bus took us to the Berber party place, which was located about 20 km from Sousse. In the yard we were introduced to Tunisian „culture“ in a very compact package. This included making of ceramics and carpets, in cross sectioned houses. There were also two tired camels: it did not look too promising. Well, there were about 150 tourists in a huge „tent“ (partly brick!). The first course of the dinner was tomato soup, which was actually the best thing of the whole party. Free red wine, „drink as much you can“ (frankly – you are not able to), and the main course was cous cous with chicken. The „Berber show“ was mainly loud traditional Berber music, tired looking dancers, „acrobatics“ and a ridiculous belly dancer. Finally outside, there was a horse riding show. The whole thing cost 25 dinars. Not too much, but was it worth it? The answer is a definite no. Clearly made for tourist groups, who do not ask for too much.
Sousse
Sousse was founded in the 9th century BC by the Phoenicians, who gave it the name Hadrumet. It’s one of the oldest ports of the Mediterranean. Later Hannibal used Hadrumet as his military base at end of the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) and was beaten. During the Third Punic War they changed over to the side of the Romans thus avoiding destruction and gaining status of a free city. In 46 BC Julius Caesar fought against Pompeii in Thapsus and the town of Hadrumet choose the wrong side. Caesar won the battle and imposed heavy taxation on the town. Later under the rule of Emperor Trajan (98-117), the town became a important commerce centre. There are no Roman sites in the town, only an archaeological museum containing mosaics and some statues.
Ribat of Sousse
The second day we decided to take a better look at the forts both in and outside of Medina. First we headed to the older ribat, located inside the Medina. It was built in 820 AD by Muslims (Aghlabites) to secure the town. The architecture is quite simple: a square fort with a single tower. Many small rooms, which were garrisoned by warrior monks, protecting the Muslim population and religious centres against invaders. Nice view from the tower over the town, if you’re not afraid of heights (27 m). The fort is in excellent condition, and we recommend a visit to it. To visit the mosque just next to the ribat requires proper clothes, which we were not wearing, so we had to pass it. To walk through the narrow alleys of the Medina to the south side of the town was an experience in itself. We were lost couple of times, but the Medina is not very large, so we managed to get out of it.
Kasbah & Archaeological museum of Sousse
On the south side (and outside) of the Medina is a larger fort, Kasbah, which was build in later centuries (1100 – 1600, extended several times). There was no access to the actual fortress, only to the museum side of it. The museum was full of beautiful roman mosaics, but nothing much else. In the courtyard there were statues (mostly headless) and the courtyard offered a very nice view over the town. We learned during our
visit in Tunisia that museums are filled with mosaics. Tunisians are proud of mosaics, but our personal opinion is that it would have been nice to find something else as well.
If you do not make visits outside the Sousse during your journey, then the ribat museum mosaics are well worth a visit. Elsewhere you can find mosaics in almost every museum or even in their original places at ruins. However, the fortress is impressive and worth to see, even from outside.
A few words about shopping, and especially about shopping in the Medina. For people accustomed to use supermarkets and self service shops, this can be a real eye-opener. The prices seem to be quite high at the start, and even the advice given by the guides to reduce the price to about half of the asked value seem to be paying too much. We offered 1/5, and even 1/10 of the price for cheaper goods and made some good bargains (as well as some poor ones). And nobody (well, to be honest, almost nobody) got angry. A good advice is that when bazaar keeper is getting a „little“ angry, you are doing good deal. When he’s happy and offers you something for good measure then for sure you are paying overprice. As a rule of the thumb –always decide beforehand what you want and what is the maximum price you will pay for the thing. Then start from 1/5 of it. Always ask what is his price first and compare that to your starting price. Continue giving counteroffers until your prices start to converge. If the price starts to converge at little too high level, start walking away. Never look too keen to make the deal.
The third day was supposed to be a day for rest, but half of our party got bored of lying in the sun and decided to make a short trip to the neighbouring town, Monastir. Monastir is famous for its huge – surprise, surprise – fortress, ribat. We had read from the travel guide that a couple of movies have been filmed in the fort, for example scenes from „Life of Brian“ and „Raiders of the Lost Ark“ (the latter was in fact completely filmed in Tunisia). We decided to take the train, which was a good idea, because it was very cheap (about 4.5 dinars for 3 persons, two-way ticket). The train is called „Sahel Metro“, and it transports passengers to neighbouring towns and to Monastir airport. It was a 20-minute ride.
The station is in the centre of Monastir, and close to its old town, Medina. It takes about 10 – 15 minutes to walk through or around the Medina to the ribat and the large mosque. The Monastir mosque is very important in Tunisian and Islam history: When the Islamic holy town Kairouan was destroyed, Monastir took its place. Later Kairouan was rebuild and it took back its status. Monastir has a beautiful mosque, tourists are allowed only to the courtyard.
Ribat of Monastir
Ruspina as the Romans called it, was founded by the Phoenicians about 700 BC. Later it became a major military base for Julius Caesar, but it does not offer any Roman monuments. Instead there is a magnificent fort, or ribat (built 796 by Harthouma Ibn el Anoyune) located just near the coast. It was one of the largest strongholds built by the Arabs in north Africa. In the same area there are actually three forts, this big one, and two smaller ones, one complete and in good condition (no entrance, at least not that time) and another, which has only parts of the stone foundation left. Both are within a one-hundred-meter distance from the big fort. The entrance fee was the usual 1 dinar plus 1 dinar for taking photographs. This fort is something you absolutely must see. You can spend hours here just walking and exploring this maze-like fort. You can walk almost everywhere, if you dare, because there are not many safety barriers around. The architecture of fort is, to say the least, interesting. Basically it is a square fort with a single tower, like the one in Sousse. But this one has been built during several centuries, expanded many times, and the result is labyrinth-like building. Inside the fort is small but interesting museum, which explains the different phases of the fort at different times.
It took three days to get to the first Roman ruins in Tunisia. But we knew this one was worth waiting for and worth the travel. A well-preserved amphitheatre is located in a small town called El Djem, 60 kilometres south of Sousse. We were thinking of different choices for the transportation: train, long-distance taxi and bus. And we, unfortunately, as you will later understand, took the long-distance taxi, the louage.
Louages have a reputation of driving too fast, but our travel guide also said that they are cheap. So we went to the taxi station (the long distance taxies have only one – a separate one – station on the south side of Sousse) early in the morning to find transportation for us. A German speaking (we do not speak much German) taxi driver offered us a ride to El Djem and back with a two-hour wait there for 18 dinars (for all of us). That made sense, because our travel guide had told us that a ride to Tunis (150 km) would be about 6 dinars each. OK, we confirmed it by writing it on paper, and everything seem to be OK. The travel was fortunately uneventful, even though the driver drove very fast on that narrow „highway“, and it was a bit scary.
El Djem
The amphitheatre of El Djem is the third largest theatre in world, after Rome’s Colosseum and the ruined theatre of Capua. The town of Thysdrus (El Djem´s Roman name) was, like almost all Roman
settlements, built on the former Punic settlements. Thysdrus prospered especially at the time of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD), when it became an important centre of olive oil manufacturing. It is in quite good condition, almost similar to Colosseum, but parts of its yellow stone walls were used to build the modern town. The construction started in 238 AD by Emperor Gordie I, who was declared Emperor of Rome here. The theatre was never completed, because of political rivalries and lack of funds within the empire. It was build for 35000 spectators and it really makes you wonder why it was built here (well, Caesar owned the land here), in the middle of nowhere, next to the small town. Stones were quarried from a distance of 50 km and still most of the material was too soft to sculpture. There was no decent water supply available, and water battles were never kept. Later the amphitheatre served for centuries as a stronghold. It was finally the last Berber bastion against Arab invaders.