Wednesday 17th April

Carthage is a suburb of Tunis & here we drove up to the main hill where the Romans had built their forum over Carthaginian houses & the site was excavated in the 1920s & 30s. It overlooks the sea & the Tunis lakes. Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians who fought the Romans in the Punic wars which they lost eventually in 146 BC. The city then had a population of about 100,000 & later, in Roman times, this grew to 500,000 making it the 3rd largest in the empire. There is a museum with some of the artifacts found during excavation but much now lies in museums of Europe. Also on the site is the Acropolium, formerly St Louis Cathedral, an unusual building with its cruciform layout but with a very muslim internal appearance.

From there we descended to see the original circular Carthaginian naval harbour built around an island with a causeway, a Punic burial ground with masses of memorial stones & the site of the Antonine public baths. These were gigantic although only the base level exists the scale is breathtaking & they must have been magnificent, sited next to the Gulf of Tunis. We moved on to the Andalucian village of Sidi Bou Said, passing the ruins of a giant cistern & the aqueduct which provided water for the city. The village was developed apparently by Muslims who fled Spain after the re conquest & the buildings are all whitewashed with blue doors & window frames. It was full of tourists with market stall everywhere & reminded us of a cross between Mykonos & Seville. Down to another French suburb where we had an excellent lunch before driving into the centre of Tunis.

Here we passed armed Police & troops & razor wire barriers in the main boulevard of the French colonial era. We walked into the old quarter which had miles of narrow covered souks selling mostly handbags, clothing, shoes, spices & jewellery. In one of the quieter alleys we came across a shop selling fezzes & the kindly shopkeeper explained how they were made from oversize knitted beanies through a series of processes into the finished article which is sold by weight. All done by hand & he didn't even try to sell us one. Our return was a little disconcerting as we lost our way & found ourselves in a fairly empty very scruffy area not knowing which way to go. We retraced our steps to an alley we recognised & followed it, not with much conviction, down to its end . Luckily, to our great relief, it was the correct route & we found ourselves at the edge of the souk near to the original gate in time to get back to the bus. Back again to our hotel to prepare for an early start tomorrow.