Mar 11, 2018
Hotel: Bel Azur Thalasso; Hammamet, Tunisia; $41
Today the plan was to visit the ampitheater at El Jem. I also debated making a loop via Kairouan which was included on some of the tour itineraries I had seen. It was another gorgeous clear day today and I wandered down to the beach again before breakfast. I wanted to get an early start so was on the road by 8:20AM. This time I took the expressway from Hammamet back to the A1. It was an easy drive this morning. When I reached Enfidha I saw the turnoff to Kairouan and decided at the moment to make the detour there after all. The drive was pretty, passing through flat fields before arriving in Kairouan about 10AM.

In Kairouan I wanted to visit the mosque, supposedly the oldest in North Africa. The GPS routed me wrong again instead of the mosque parking lot I ended up inside the medina city walls. As I was turning around a local on a motorcycle said to follow him to parking, undoubtedly for a 'tip'. I parked outside the walls and managed to ditch him though. I wandered through the medina which was very quiet with buildings painted in white and blue. Had I done more research on this visit I would have found out that Kairouan is where they filmed parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark, including the famous gun/swordfight scene! As it was I was barely two blocks from most of the filming locations and never knew until I got back to the hotel! Oh well.



















Kairouan

I managed to weave my way through the medina to the mosque. The Mosque of Uqba was originally built in 670AD. Entry was 11 TND but the 'infidels' couldn't go in the inner mosque and only view it from outside. The entry ticket also allowed entry into some of the other attractions in town. Across the street from the mosque were some shops that let you go up to the roof to have a view out over the mosque, of course they expect you to buy something but I managed to avoid. I next drove to the Aghlabid Basins, stopping at the Mosque of the Barber along the way. This was busy with local worshippers and a large group of women sitting and having lunch. The basins were on the north end of town and were huge reservoirs originally used for the town water supply.





Aghlabid Basins

From Kairouan it was another hour's drive to El Jem, arriving before 2PM. El Jem is famous for its relatively intact Roman colosseum, one of the largest outside Europe. Built in AD280 it could hold up to 35000 people. There were a few other tourists here but it still felt like I had the place to myself. Entry here was also 11TND but I managed to lose my ticket. Some of the walls had graffiti carved into them including some from WWII.










El Jem amphitheater

From El Jem I got back on the A1 and headed north towards Sousse. I had found a Hard Rock Cafe and wanted to pick up a t-shirt. Lots of new development going around in the area. Picked up my shirt. I was starving too by this point so decided to just eat lunch at the cafe. Wasn't getting exactly an authentic Tunisian cuisine experience this trip! From the HRC it was another hour drive back to Hammemet, arriving at 5PM after a long day drive. Dinner at the hotel tonight was even busier than last night.