Cruising the Mediterranean 7 - Tunis, Carthage and Sidi Bou Said

After two nights and a full day at sea, this is the view of Tunis (or more correctly the port of La Goulette) which we woke up to. Tunis is in North Africa and the capital of Tunisia.  

We chose to do an organised tour of the historic city of Carthage and the seaside suburb of Sidi Bou Said.

Carthage is on the top of a hill about 15 kilometres from the centre of Tunis and is a UNESCO world heritage listed site. It was founded in 800BC by the Phoenicians who used its coastal position to open up trade routes across the Mediterranean Sea. Of course this made it very attractive, particularly to the Romans but also the Greeks, who fought with them about who should have it. What remains at the site are the ruins of the ancient city.

Some fantastic Byzantine mosaics have been discovered here. This very famous one is known as The Lady of Carthage. She was discovered in 1953 and is thought to have been made somewhere between 500-600AD.

We also saw other artifacts such as this baby bottle and numerous statues in a museum that ironically used to be a Catholic Church. 

We also saw this ancient Roman viaduct when we were driving around.

Next stop was Sidi Bou Said which is a village about 20kms from Tunis, famous for its blue and white architecture.

There was a market on the day we were there and the small streets were filled with hawkers, locals and tourists. We tasted the local mint tea (which was served in cute glasses with pine nuts and was delicious) and some kind of donut.

I would have loved to have bought some of this pottery but it was quite stressful looking at things because of the hard sell. Besides that we wouldn't have been able to carry it!

On our way back to the ship, we passed what is alleged to be the oldest olive tree in Tunisia.