I could tell you about the many treasures and interesting places to visit from La Goulette, the port gateway, to Tunis such as the Bardo Museum housed in the 9th century Beyical Museum with its fine collection of mosaics and jewellery, the 13th Century Medina with its labyrinth of lanes, stalls, shops and eating houses – recently the Medina has been declared a UNESCO listed site – or even more impressive Carthage at one time the third largest city in the Roman Empire or Sidi Bou Said a delightful seaside village just north of Carthage with its distinctive Blue and White buildings but I’m not going to since I have been to Tunis before in April 2007 so you will have to wait until I do a retrospective Blog for more detail. All I can say is that they are all worth visiting and just to wet your appetite here are a few pictures that I have retrieved from my archive.
I do remember that my previous visit was very worthwhile and interesting. We had a very educated guide – an architect turned historian – and I just wish I could recall all that he told us on a long day tour that covered all of the sites mentioned above as well as a Roman Amphitheatre and that culminated in an inevitable visit to his brother’s – or was it cousin’s - carpet shop in the Medina. Yes you guessed I fell for a runner and it has adorned by hallway ever since. I remember fretting all the way back to Southampton that I would not get this by customs without paying excise but I needn’t have bothered since there was no one on duty. I even phoned and was thanked for my honesty but told to proceed – so I got a very good deal!!
There is a ‘but’ to all this, Tunisia and Tunis has changed and not necessarily for the better at the current time anyway.
The photos are of Carthage, Sid Bou Said and the Medina from April 2007!
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