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Tunisia Holiday Attractions
Bardo Museum
Bardo Museum With its six sections: Prehistory, Greek (underwater excavations of Mahdia), Roman, Pagan, Paleochristian (early Roman empire, Vandal era and Byzantine) and Arab-Moslem, the bardo Museum, founded in 1888 in one of the pavilions of the Bey's palace, benefitted by some improvements after independence (the organization of new galleries, modernization of the exhibits in the old galleries, signage in three languages: Arab, French, English) and very recently on the occasion of the celebration of the museums first centennial. Along with the Cairo Museum, it is considered the richest museum on the African continent and occupies first place in the world for its collection of antique floor mosaics.
Many centuries of art live within the museum's walls; a history and a civilization reveal themselves to the visitor who discovers, for example, that around the 40th Millenium before Christ, in EI-Guettar (near Gafsa), to ensure the continuity of a spring, some men erected a curious stone and bone building at the edge of a pond. Was it perhaps the first religious building that bears witness to the birth of prehistoric man's religious sentiment? Masks of grimacing men or smiling women (the former to drive away bad spirits, the latter to attract the good ones), the jewels in the gallery called Punic Jewelry, recently reorganized (rings, bracelets, earrings, amulets produced between the 7th and 3rd centuries B.C.) constitute rare reminders of the Carthaginian creative spirit during the city's first period.
The creative genius of African antiquity is mirrored in the masterpieces inspired by Phoenicia, Greece or Egypt and emerges with strength in the Roman era with an artistic production can compare to that of Rome itself or other parts of the Empire.The visitor can also admire the beautiful sculptures exhibited in the gallery named Thuburbo Majus: of great interest are the bronzes and marbles from the Hellenistic era, collected from the remains of a ship found at a depth of 39 meters, and 5 kilometers distant from Mahdia; the visitor will stop for a longer time in front of the numerous mosaics, where the life of the Gods mixed with that of man, where the eternal quotidian and myth reach reality. Prevailing in ancient Africa (especially in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.) floor mosaics form Tunisia's greatest archaeological wealth. Present in all Roman sites, adorning the floors of their villas, palaces, baths and public buildings, the art was perpetuated during the Paleochristian and Byzantine eras and into the 10th century with a Fatimid mosaic discovered in Mahdia and exhibited in one of the museum's galleries. But, notwithstanding the attraction of the mosaics, the visit to the Arab-Moslem gallery is not to be missed. Here, one is enchanted by the refined arabesques fil-igreed on the jewelry, sculpted on precious wood or ivory, printed on brocades, or painted on tiles. For this visit to be complete, one must end with a look at the Section of Popular Arts and Traditions, in particular the new garden gallery, pleasently embellished by furniture and objects representing daily life in Tunisia of yesterday, and in some ways, even of today.
Carthage
What is more natural than the fact that Carthage has become the object of international interest for its preservation and today figures at the head of the list of World Patrimony? Perhaps because for centuries it was the richest and most desired city in the world, the city that Rome hated and admired, the city sung by Apuleius and glorified by Saint Augustine, and finally the city that became legend as much for its moments of glory as for the tragic end reserved by destiny. Under these circumstances, is it not normal that the entire contemporary world focuses its attention here and attempts in the name of World Patrimony and international solidarity to reconcile it with its history that it seems to want to forget? In effect, if compared with other ancient African sites such as Dougga, Bulla Regia, Thydrus, etc, the vestiges of Carthage, although not insignificant, have neither the coherence nor the integrity, nor the grandiose and spectacular appearance that the visitor expects in ancient sites. This explains how Carthage was so badly treated from the time that Cato pronounced the famous death sentence executed by Scipio and that the Vandals repeated, imitated later by Medieval sackers, razing the city and using the ruins for construction materials.However, hope still exists because, in 1985, a national park of 545 hectares was created to protect the building areas and to constitute a true archaeological reserve. From that moment, we hope that the new discoveries that will be added to the remains that we admire now, will complete the image of this prestigious city, that has been cut off. The Tophet, as some have maintained, was perhaps the place in which Elissa (Dido's queen) landed, escaping from the tyranny of her brother Pygmalion, King of Tyre (Lebanon). Is it also the place consecrated to the pyres to obtain the favor of the gods on the new city that she founded (Qart Hadasht)? Nothing is certain. But the archaeologists are sure that on the precise site called Sa-lambo, not far from the sea, member of noble families were burned for centuries (until the 4th century B.C.) and their ashes collected in the urns upon which they erected pillars decorated with the solar disc and the upside-down half moon, symbols of Baai-Hammon and Tanit. On one of these pillars, visible today in the Bardo Museum, is a child accompanied by a priest, most likely destined to be sacrificed in the fire.Carthage. Designed on two underground levels and one above, only the substructure remains to document this building begun under Hadrian (118-138) and completed under Antoninus Pius.Of the main level, one only sees the ruins of some vaults and especially a column topped by a gigantic capital weighing four tons. Past splendor can be admired here in this monument whose spaces and volumes can be imagined, as well as the recent and courageous archaeological work that allowed the reconstruction of one of the twelve columns that supported the rooves of the baths proper.Neither the Odeon (205-210), abandoned though considered of great value, nor the theater (dated to Hadrian's reign), well restored for the Carthage Festival, can justify today's great importance given Roman Carthage. Perhaps the Christian remains, so numerous in Carthage, are more eloquent: Damous Karita (perhaps a deformation of domus caritatis: the house of charity), the basilica called San Ciprianus, that of Douimes, the chapel near the baths, all attest to how early Christianity imported to Roman Africa prospered in Carthage (Tertullian lived there from 155 to 220 and later Saint Augustine) and to her first martyrs (Saint Perpetua in 203 and Saint Ciprianus-in 258).
