Friday, July 11, 2008

A Roman Gem

El Jem is a wonderful place to visit. It is halfway between Sousse and Sfax and in this small town is the 3rd largest Roman Colosseum of the Roman era. It simply dominates the town.

The Colosseum, 148 m. X 122 m. is one of the last built and dates from the 2nd century. We walked around and climbed to where people had watched the gladiators, lions and Christians die a terrible death. We also explored the underground rooms including the holding places for the various combatants.

We visited 2 small amphitheatres and the El Jem Museum. it had an outstanding collection. If the Bardo in Tunis has the worlds best mosaics, this must have the second best! Many showed scenes form the Colosseum and they also had the marble statues all minus their heads. many of the mosaics came from nobles houses and we saw an extensive group of Roman villas.

Wow! What a place!

3 comments:

Miss Di said...

Why were they all without their heads?
It all sounds very fascinating!

Anonymous said...

With the madness of World Ute Day surrounding us here I am not surprised the Christians got thrown to the lions. Umm I am kidding, really.

gailandrob said...

The barbarians knocked them off.