On to Sidi Bou Said via Hammamet.......

 Hammamet has some of the best beaches in Tunisia and so tourists flock there. It also has a really nice Medina.....

Then off to Sidi Bou Said to explore ancient Carthage! Via La Goulette......

Our Tunisian guide was very happy to see a cruise ship docked.....he commented 1800 people going into Tunis on tours!! It was rather large!

Our hotel, the Dar Said, view........

Sidi Bou is known for its blue doors....and I couldn't resist!

I did manage to find a few other colors........ but not many!

Visiting Carthage ......we checked out the Roman/Zaghouan aqueduct which brought water 130kms to the city...

On the Byrsa Hill there were some excavated Punic homes...... but most were destroyed and buried when the Romans took Carthage around 146 BC.......

In Punic days........ it looked like this.......

After the Romans won.......

Then on to the Baths of Antoninus.... a  huge area!

There really was not much left at Carthage.........So happy to have been able to see all the other sites!

To Kairouan... via the Roman ruins of Sbeitla

 It was quite a long drive to Sbeitla... but worth it!

The main attraction is the forum area with three important temples dedicated to Minerva, Jupiter and Juno, the gods who protected Rome.

This was the Treasury under one of the temples......

Th

......the underground area to produce heat for the baths......

Kairouan is one of Tunisia's most holy cities ........

The Great Mosque is one of  the oldest places of worship in Africa! Founded in 670 AD

Some stones with roman writing were used when building the minaret!

We were not allowed to enter the prayer room.... photos from the door OK!!

We checked out the Aghlabid Basins built in the 9th century to provide water to Kairouan.

Then on to the Medina.........

Then next day on to another Roman site El Djem. which has the largest amphitheater in Africa.......

Underneath where animals were kept during performances.......

After visiting the Amphitheatre we went to an amazing mosaic museum and a reconstructed Roman villa with its original mosaic floors as they had been in Roman times!

The museum had a huge number of mosaic floors which had been painfully excavated!

...and then we went to the villa.....

The Dining room!

and then an unknown purpose room......

.....very similar to Botticelli's ' Birth of Venus'!! Very curious!

There is still a large area to be fully excavated...... they just lack the funds!