Tunisia – Carthage

Carthage, Tunisia.

If ancient Roman ruins are not your thing then I guess you will give this section a pass. For me however they fascinate me (sad I know). The ruins of this once great city are extensive and most people even drive from individual excavation site to the next  … but I love walking and so did just that. Amphitheatres, bathhouses, temples, villas, theatres, forums, you name it they were here and in huge amounts. A few thousand year’s worth of history under my feet!

By the end of the day however, I was Roman ruins “saturated out ” but so glad to have seen them at last. The trip by train to see then from Tunis was a highlight as it trundled over the water causeway, with views out to sea, back to the city and even into local’s nearby houses and gardens.

Carthage, (meaning New City in the ancient Punic language), near Tunis, is one of those places in the world that has a long, long history and to skip it in a few photos would be so, so wrong, So a little background info is needed to understand why it is so important even though is has been reduced now to ruins and rubble in fields.

A little history on Carthage

It was founded by Queen Dido, a Phoenician, in 813 BC when she fled from Lebanon, (see UNESCO info link here). That makes some of the ruins I will see today about 2800 years old ! It grew and formed a huge trading empire and battled with the Greeks for 200 years from 560BC. It then battled with the Romans from 218BC to control the Mediterranean – remember Hannibal and his elephants crossing the Alps to attack them? (he was from Carthage). Eventually Carthage lost the wars and its empire in 146 BC to the Roman Empire and was totally destroyed and raised to the ground and left as fields.

The Romans under Julius Caesar then recolonised it and by 44 BC was the second biggest city in the Roman Empire with 500,000 inhabitants. It was taken over by the Vandals in 440 AD (who didn’t vandalise it! – ha-ha – but grew the city). Then taken over and expanded by the Byzantines in 533 AD, captured by the Muslims in 698 AD and it remained prosperous and expanded. Carthage was now replaced by Tunis, (see review of Tunis here) just down the road as a more modern setting and the city and country become a French protectorate in 1881.

Ok, history lesson over! So I am to see a lots of various ruins but predominantly Roman today.

How to get to Carthage from Tunis.

Well, Carthage is a massive archaeological site – not just a small city ruins but spread over about 12 square kilometres of area. Some has been excavated and restored, much is still underground and covered in earth and grass/flowers and some has apartment blocks and roads running through it.

It is so huge an area that it doesn’t have a fenced off area (apart from some big excavated buildings) and you can live in it and drive through it. Imagine an area about 6 km by 2km and that would be what it once covered.

It lies about 14 Km north east of Tunis City but in reality is an extension of the urban area with train, bus and car routes running through it. To get here you can use buses – never worked out how they ran or where from. By car – a good idea of you want to hire one for a couple of days to drive between areas on the site or by train and use leg power/taxi to do the short distances between sites. Get your hotel to recommend one or book up online beforehand (can be expensive for what it is but you usually get a guide with it).

I say walk because there are many normal roads running through the site and they all have decent pavements beside them but I am an avid walker so you may wish to use taxis sometimes. I took the train from Tunis Marine station at the end of Habib Bourguiba Avenue. There is a ticket office inside the small station and return tickets can be bought there .

It was about 30p for a 2nd class return or 60p for 1st Class return. Crazily cheap but to be honest I saw little difference between the carriage classes and there is no checking or monitoring so I felt anyone was sitting wherever they wanted. The train is dated and basic but the seats were ok and what do you want for 60p anyhow???

I got a seat near the window – the doors strangely are boarded over so you cant look out of them. I watched the world go by and the trip in itself is fascinating as it goes out from Tunis on a waterway causeway with views across the lake and into a small dockside and industrial area and back towards the city skyline. The lines meanders really close to the houses further out and across small level road crossings. It was a great insight into how people lived and worked around here as you are literally looking into gardens and windows as the train passed by.

Where to get off – well it depends where you want to start your walking trip. I got off at Gare Salammbo and walked the 15 mins to what is left of the ancient Punic Port.

What to see and do in Carthage

Not much to see nowadays but this port in its day was magnificent and I just had to see whatever I could …. basically nothing now apart from the unique ring shape it had and the outer harbour.

Sorry to bore non history seeking readers but that’s me! To see anything you have to go into the museum in the middle of the harbour ring where there are some ruins but it was not enough to get me in there so I passed. I walked back from hear towards the Gare Byrsa, turned onto La Goulette road and walked for 20 mins taking in this quieter area of Tunis with a few grander houses in the area till I reached Av de la Republique crossroads and turned right down this Avenue towards the sea.

There are a couple of Embassies down this road, heavily guarded and one even motioned that I had to walk in the middle of the street with the cars rather than the public pavement in a show of grandiose appropriation of public areas. At the end of the street is a view across the bay to the mountains on the the other side – unexpected as thought it would be beaches etc but quite a picturesque view.

Here is Quartier Magon, a small archaeological site but to be honest you can see most of it from outside so I didn’t go in as the site I was after was round the corner. I walked up past the Post Office and Police Station and at the end of the road to my left was the entrance to one of the biggest sites in Carthage – the Antonine baths, a UNESCO world heritage site, (click here to see info).

At the ticket office I was offered a combined ticket for 5 other sites in Carthage costing 12 dinar and was really glad they suggested it as I was going to the others anyway and buying the combined ticket saved me quite a bit.

Carthage – The Antonine Baths

The baths here are a 2nd Century Roman thermae complex. Now in ruins but with info boards at the viewing platform showing how it once looked and the floorplan. It was huge now so would have been quite a sight in its day!

I walked down the steps to the baths themselves are there are unmarked stairs to go down into the baths and wander around the massive walls, arches and remains.

You need a little imagination to envisage how it looked but when you see the size of the Gymnasium exercise area and the walls of the pools it brings home its size.

I did feel a little strange that I could walk up to these  ruins of nearly 2,ooo years and actually touch the walls. There were no stewards to stop anyone doing this or indeed damaging the ruins further

There is definitely a feeling as you explore that these were impressive buildings of teh time. The walls were tall and the rooms vast and would have been a splendid sight in its day.

I did get the impression that this what a bombed out village would feel like from a war as parts were still easily discernible as to what they were but others were completely destroyed and in rubble on the ground – all very interesting though!

I walked round taking pics and then retraced my steps and basically wandered the site to see the other outbuildings,

Walks through the site to other areas feels like you are walking through a park as much is grassed over and has trees growing and they have left areas undisturbed to reveal only the important finds.

A few minutes walk through the gardens you come across yet more ruins of small houses, ruins of a basilica with columns and walls and even some old cliff side buildings that looked more like caveman dwellings now. These are more basic foundations and small walls that although they wouldn’t give you a great impression of the buildings, unless you are an archaeologist, you get to see the floorplan and size of these structures.

Often mosaics were exposed on the ground and you can see them in situo still. One of the delights here was a small underground temple. You can almost miss it as it looks like the entrance to an underground bunker that you are not supposed to enter but a small sign gave it away and it is open to the public. Go down the steps and into a small cavern temple with a lovely mosaic floor and a few decorations …. gorgeous ….

It was quite dark and flash was needed to get a pic and even that was quite dim. Enchanting small space that gave an real feeling of solitude. I was alone in what was a quiet site today (was off season and a rainy-ish day ). I soaked up the atmosphere of this underground chamber of worship, the smallest I have ever seen.

From here my next site is about 10 mins walk or a quick taxi ride if you can find one in the quiet area. I walked up the road alongside the entrance /exit away from the sea and up to the crossroads. You then cross the road, go under the train bridge and take the first right onto Montee de l’Odeon.  Walk uphill past some wealthy looking owned houses, cross over the crossroads and go further up ……. there are no signs for the entrance!

You will see guards with guns who look at you which put me off as I thought I was near a military place, but by now I was recognising that every tourist site has armed guards. The entrance is also next to the Portuguese Embassy which may explain why there were  more guards than normal. My combo ticket got me in here and after the entrance it is a short walk to see the remains of the old Roman Villas section of Carthage.

Roman Villas

There are just small walls and columns at first but do not be put off as the further you walk in the more there is to see. On a raised area there is an almost complete villa with views over the area.

You can walk its small paved mosaic garden and view the outside colonnaded portico that runs along two sides of the building.

One of the restored areas housed hundreds of removed mosaics stacked against the wall as there are just too many to display adequately.

From here there is the walk to The Odeon (ruins of the Theatre ) but try as I might I could not find it as again no signage, I later looked on a more detailed map and saw it was through an open area that I thought was a waste field  blocked by trees! Here you are on what is probably one of the highest points in Carthage and gives some views across the neighbouring territory.

To one side you can glimpse the modern Mosque of Malek Ibn Anas, below are more villa ruins and to the other you can see across the flowering wild fields towards the Presidential Palace. You cannot go in but you can see guards across the way around to prevent access in and you can see just the roof of the building and the sea beyond.

Amphitheatre

Next stop was the big amphitheatre (Carthage has two) and it was a journey out of this site down the hill and turn right at the main road and follow. The entrance is like a grand avenue (armed guards again) with a large car park. Whilst it was good to see it, it has been restored so much that it doesn’t feel authentic anymore. Concerts and plays are performed here regularly so there is a modern stage and metal structures for speakers and TV . One part still has the original huge stone seat-steps. Good to see, as it is nearly 2000 years old, but the modern setting takes the edge off the ancient history it holds.

From here was another 20 mins walk or catch a taxi ….. I warn you I walk miles and miles every day and love the exercise and taking in everything around. You may be wanting to stop here and go home from exhaustion….but I continued. A walk out to the crossroads and up Rue Symphax here, past the ancient columns in a small park next door – you can see then from the road and by now I was a bit all roman-columned-out.

Walking through residential streets upwards in what is clearly a more upmarket area of town and down the other side. Turn right , then left up the hill, up to near the Hotel Didon and a right turn up the hill, Carry on past the Museum (closed down apparently) and you arrive at an old Cathedral.

Acropolium of Carthage

It was called Saint Louis Cathedral and built on the site of an old Punic Temple on Byrsa Hill, the tallest hill in Cartage. In its day was the most important Catholic church in all of Africa until the later Cathedral in the city took over. It is now called the Acropolium and used as a music and convention centre. The interior is still as a Cathedral with a big aisle, apse and altar but is converted to what is needed on the day.

Today an organic food and cosmetics convention was being held here! Free entry today and the chance to take pics of the wonderfully decorated interior in pastel shades, in a surreal landscape of commercial stalls. T

This place is not on the usual tourist trail and indeed several guide books miss it out completely but I wanted to see history and this building was certainly big and colourful enough to merit a visit, despite its lesser status today.

There is a small archaeological site next door and a nice café in the courtyard next door for a coffee or bite to eat.

Taxis are at the exit here if a concert or convention is on and I got the usual attention. They could not believe I was walking to the next site about 20 mins away and even though they kept temptingly lowering their initial offer price to take me there I persisted in my walk. One taxi driver even followed down 10 mins later to check and again offered to take me for an even lower price ! I walked on after declining politely.

Down the curvy road from here to a main road and use your MAPS.ME app or a physical map because here the small amphitheatre is not easily seen and is surrounded by trees and in a sunken area.

Small Amphitheatre

Entrance was included in my combi ticket and I walk around the arena and up the banks to get the feel of this place. Again semi-deserted which was great to get the pics but made me feel a bit lonely. You have to visualise again as in its day it would have had steeped high seating that would actually hold 35000 people and two Christian Martyrs were killed here who were eventually made into Saints.

I learned that most of the stone was pillaged to make other buildings after its demise. The foundations of the underground area are visible form the ground which you would not normally see if attending in Roman times but the small gateways into the arena from the walls were still there.

It needs a bit more clearing where trees and bushes have started to grow and it was not in the best of conserved states but the overall impression was atmospheric enough to imagine how it would have looked in its heyday.

I rested here and decided I had seen all the Roman ruins I wanted , happy at the days adventure but legs weary and fatigued. Should I catch a taxi from the nearby road or walk back to Byrsa station some 30 mins away …. I saw it as a challenge to say I have walk the length and breadth of Carthage. So determined to complete my uni que visit (in my eyes), I gritted my teeth and walked to the station.

It was an easy straight walk back so I could not get lost and interesting again to see life as it is lived in the suburbs. Many locals looked at me on the way as I guess they don’t get many walking tourists in this area but here I am . Got to the station and hopped back on my train to my hotel in Tunis, content and glad for the sit down for the next 20 mins.

There we are, one of my bucket list places that I have wanted to see all my life ticked off the list. Impressed by the size of the site, surprised to see more modern developments among it but content to know I have now seen where Hannibal came from!

March 2019.