Tunisia Is Terrific. Review on Tunisia, General

Tunisia is the third country from the left, (if you look on a map), in North Africa. The city of Tunis and the country are called Tunis in Arabic. It is a small country with about the same area as England and it has two coastlines.

The History:

The Berbers were the ancient people from North Africa west of Egypt and were ruled by a Queen. She had them all convert to Judaism. The Arabs invade in 639 and made most of the Berbers become Muslims.

The Jews who didn't convert live in the hills and sometimes come to Tunis to sell things in the market. Tunisia was called Ifriqiyah in the early centuries of the Islamic period. That name, in turn, comes from the Roman word for Africa and the name also given by the Romans to their first African colony following the Punic Wars against the Carthaginians in 264-146 BC.

After brief periods of rule by the Vandals and Byzantines, the Arabs conquered the area in AD 647. Although the Arabs initially unified North Africa, by 1230 a separate Tunisian dynasty had been established by the Hafsids.

Muslim Andalusians migrated to the area after having been forced out of Spain in 1492. By 1574, Tunisia was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, which lasted until 1922.

The French and British consuls, (Leon Roches and Richard Wood), used the Sfez affair to have Muhammad Bey make certain reforms, which came to be called Ahd al-Aman' , (the Pact of Security).

The Arabs who moved west and settled there, descendants of sub-Saharan slaves brought there up until the French took it over.

Today:

The official language is Arabic with French taught as a second language from primary school upwards.

The population is 98% Moslem with the other minority mainly made up of Christians and Jews but still Tunisians.

We went to see Hannibal Palace at Port El-Kantaoui. Tunis is a quick drive on the autoroute from the Sousse area.

Both Sousse and Tunis have electric trains than help you get around easily.

The Bardo Museum, which was formerly the Turkish Bey's Palace was designed along the lines of The Prado in Madrid.

The museum is very impressive with a wonderful display of Roman mosaics artefacts .

The museum also shows the history of Tunisia from the Stone Age onwards. Besides now being a museum, the building was once a palace and is decorated with delicate Arabic carved ceilings and ornate lamps.

The Phoenician or Roman site of Carthage is a suburb of Tunis.

From the Roman forum atop a hill with a marvelous panoramic view of all Tunis, you can see the two levels of the civilizations that formed this ancient city.

The Phoenicians, (Punics), that occupied the area prior to the Romans lived on the slopes of the hill and many of their building foundations can still be seen.

When the Romans took the place over they built brick piers all around the hill top to act as soil stabilizers and shoveled the peak of the hill away leveling off the hill top to create the forum area. They buried of what the Phoenicians had built.

It has been re-excavated so that both civilizations are in evidence. Even if antiquities aren’t your thing, this trip is worth it for the view of Tunis alone.

We went to see a plantation in an oasis. We saw a number sanctuaries where they showed us dessert plants and creature. We went to the Chott El Djerid, (the World's third largest salt flat). We went onto the salt flats to see how the salt glistened like diamonds as the sun rose.

At Metlaoui we stopped here to ride the Red Lizard that is the restored Royal train of Tunisia. It took us on a ten mile branch line ending in a phosphate quarry.

Our Hotel:

We stayed at the Gammarth near Tunis. It is 20 km from Tunis on by the sea.

Our room was decorated in all the colors of the sand. It had air-conditioning, a king sized bed, smoke alarms, a phone, cable TV, a mini-bar, desk and the closet was divided in two, (one side for hanging cloths the other for folded clothes.

In the bathroom was all tiled and there was a bath/shower, toilet, sink and a hair drier.

Nightlife:

Even though Tunis is the capital of Tunisia the night life here is not terribly exciting.

We went to the Casino a few times.

There are a few Discos but most of the people in them are men. The only time you see women is if they are with their husband or friends.

I Think:

If you have a chance to visit this amazing country you should.

Thanks for reading my review.

©LL2006