Thursday, October 22nd.
Today was our last day of touring in Tunisia. We drove for about an hour to reach El Djem, a modern city built around more Roman ruins. We visited the Museum (that was its name) which was set up like a Roman villa with a courtyard with rooms leading off of it. There we saw dozens of excellent mosaics, some were huge as they covered the floor in large rich people’s homes. When you walked out the back door of the museum you walk into the residential part of the ancient city where you can see the layout of the town and the foundations of remnants of the walls of houses, some with their mosaic floors still in place. Then we drove to the massive Roman Amphitheatre of El Djem, rising from flat agricultural plains like a sandstone mountain, a monument to imperial ambition and provincial wealth. With capacity for 30,000 spectators, this colosseum rivals Rome's own, yet its superior preservation makes it perhaps more impressive than its famous model. Unlike the one in Rome, here floor of the colosseum still exists and we could descend steps into the level below where gladiators, Christians, wild animals and criminals were kept until they were released into the forum to met their fate in front of bloodthirsty crowds. Built during the brief reign of emperors Gordian I and II (who ruled mere weeks before Roman legions crushed their African rebellion), the amphitheatre demonstrates how quickly provincial wealth translated into monumental architecture. The structure was completed in 6 years of the 3rd century. Here, gladiatorial combats and wild beast hunts entertained crowds drawn from across Roman Africa. Climbing to the amphitheatre's upper tiers, we could survey the surrounded flat landscapes where Roman agricultural estates once supplied grain to feed the empire. We arrived back at the Belvedere Hotel, where we had stayed for the first three days of this trip. Some of us met in the lobby where Russ bought us a drink to use up his Tunisian dinars. They we took a short bus ride and a walk through part of the Medina to reach a beautiful little hotel (that was probably a private residence previously) where we had our last goodbye dinner on the rooftop. We were saying goodbye to Doug, Tom, Russ, Bob, and Joanne. Six of us are continuing to Malta and 7 people are joining us from a parallel tour of Tunisia and 3 more will join us in Malta, including Norm’s daughter and her husband. Back to the hotel for the night. Our flight to Malta is early tomorrow afternoon.
