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Tunis

In Tunisia's capital, the term "living history" really does apply. Here, periods of conquest, trade and independence have woven into the city's fabric and culture a rich and complex flavor that becomes apparent wherever you explore.

Take the magnificent medieval medina, sidelined by the French after colonization but coming into its own in the 21st century, as boutique hotels open and arty cafes lure locals back to the neighborhoods their grandparents grew up in. And consider the historic settlement of Carthage, once colonized by Phoenicians and Romans but now the province of upwardly mobile locals, whose sophisticated lives play out among the ruins.

In some ways, these developments – and the optimism that is inspiring them – fly in the face of the economic downturn apparent elsewhere in the country. But Tunis has always been a resilient and forward-looking settlement, one that makes an excellent starting point for any exploration of Tunisia.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Tunis.

  • See

    Antonine Baths

    The Romans chose a sublime seaside setting for this monumental terme (bath complex), a short walk downhill from the Roman villas. Begun under Hadrian and finished in the 2nd century AD under Antoninus, it was the largest terme outside Rome, supplied with water by the great Zaghouan aqueduct. Just the foundations remain, but they are awesome in scale. A plan of the baths above the main complex will help you imagine how the complex would have functioned in its heyday. An octagonal caldarium (hot room) was flanked by smaller saunas and led to a small tepidarium (warm room), which allowed access to the huge 22m-by-42m frigidarium (cold room) at the centre with its eight colossal pillars. Beyond this was a wonderful, 17.5m-by-13.5m seaside swimming pool, no trace of which remains. To either side of the frigidarium were palaestras (gymnasiums), where people could indulge in naked wrestling and other frisky sports. A sole 15m-high frigidarium column gives a sense of its former dimensions – its capital alone weighs 8 tons – and huge fragments of marble inscription supply a taste of the decor. To the southwest a huge semicircular construction was discovered, with around 80 seats, which archaeologists at first thought was a theatre. It turned out to be a large group of communal latrines. Only the shape and traces of the mosaic floor remains. The baths were destroyed by the Vandals (doing what they did best) in AD 439, and the stone was reused by the Arabs during the construction of Tunis. The overgrown garden contains other remains, too, including Punic tombs and a tiny early Christian funerary chapel with a mosaic floor that was moved here from northern Carthage and rebuilt.

  • See

    Ghaya Gallery

    Head up the exterior staircase to visit this impressive commercial gallery close to the train station in Sidi Bou Saïd. It gives contemporary Tunisian artists the chance to show their work in individual and group shows, and has a curatorial approach sitting comfortably on the cutting edge.

  • See

    La Malga Cisterns

    The restored and extremely impressive remnants of the huge 2nd-century-AD cisterns that housed Roman Carthage’s water supply are located at the foot of Byrsa Hill. The original complex was nearly 1km long and fed by a huge aqueduct carrying mountain spring water from Zaghouan.

  • See

    Dar Ennejma Ezzahra

    Built between 1912 and 1922 for French-born Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger and his Italian-American wife Elizabetta, this palace residence is an exhilarating mix of Modernist architecture and traditional Maghrebi and Andalusian design, filled with virtuoso carved stucco and wooden inlay work, marble floors and columns, ornate furniture and an internationally renowned collection of traditional musical instruments. The magnificent entrance/reception hall with its fountain fed by a long marble water channel and the richly decorated music salon are the undoubted highlights. The recreated painting studio is filled with the baron’s early-Modern figurative canvases, and his extraordinary collection of musical instruments is exhibited in an upstairs gallery; this collection draws musicologists from around the world. The baron wrote a six-volume work, La Musique Arabe (1930–1959), and he was widely acknowledged as an expert in traditional Arabic music. His estate funds the nearby Centre for Arabic and Mediterranean Music. A 45-minute audio guide (2DT) offers a tour of the palace, complete with musical soundtrack.

  • See

    Sanctuary of Tophet

    Originally dedicated to the deities Baal Hammon and Tanit, this Carthaginian sacrificial site and burial ground is dotted with stubby stelae engraved with simple geometric shapes and symbols. When the site was excavated by a French team of archaeologists in 1921, more than 20,000 urns, each containing the ashes of a child (mostly newborn, but also children up to age four), were found under the stelae. Wandering through the site is a haunting experience. The name Tophet is Hebrew for ‘place of burning’ and comes from Bible references to child sacrifice, such as in Jeremiah: '[the people of Judah] have built the altar called Tophet…and there they burn to death their little sons and daughters'. While ancient sources are unequivocal about the Carthaginians’ practice of child sacrifice, there are various other interpretations as to what may have actually taken place. The Romans, despite their righteous horror, can’t have been too spooked, as they built workshops, warehouses and a temple over the site.

  • See

    Byrsa Hill

    In Punic times, Byrsa Hill was occupied by a temple to the Carthaginian god Eschmoun. The Romans destroyed most of the Punic structures – all that remains is a small, well-preserved section of a residential quarter dating from the time of Hannibal (around the 3rd century BC). It's still possible to discern a street grid dotted with small, carefully planned domestic structures – some of which were once five storeys high – complete with subterranean cisterns and ground-floor shops. From the terrace in front of the Carthage Museum that now sits atop the hill (a former Roman Catholic seminary built in the early 20th century), it's possible to see the ancient Punic ports and the intensely blue Gulf of Tunis.

  • See

    Carthage Museum

    Sitting on the crest of Byrsa Hill and housed in an early-20th-century building that once functioned as a Catholic seminary, this museum is one of the major draws of the Carthage site, but was closed for a major renovation in early 2018 and no reopening date is yet available. When works are complete, it is likely that many of the long-term exhibits will be retained. These include two magnificent 4th-century-BC stone-carved sarcophagi depicting an extraordinarily lifelike priest and priestess. Other significant pieces in the museum's collection include a statue of a drunken Silenus leaning on a wine sack and attended by a Maenad.

  • See

    North Africa American Cemetery

    Around 750m along the road from La Malga Cisterns, a striking forest of white crosses bears testament to the Americans killed in North Africa during WWII. There are 2841 neatly ordered graves at the cemetery and a Wall of Remembrance to 3724 others missing in action.

  • See

    Roman Villas

    A visit to this former residential enclave gives a real sense of refined ancient Roman life in Carthage. The reconstructed Villa of the Aviary is the centrepiece, featuring a columned portico, courtyard with mosaic floor and terrace with views over the Gulf of Tunis.

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