Things to see and do Tunis

Unfortunately closed since July 2021, the Bardo Museum remains the most important archaeological museum in the Maghreb. Created in 1882 in one of the pavilions of the beylical palace, it was then part of a set of buildings constructed by the Hafsides. Made sadly famous after the attacks of March 18, 2015, the museum is located at the exit of the city to Beja and Bizerte, next to the university campus. The objects it houses are divided into four departments grouping collections belonging to an era of the country's history: Carthaginian, Punic, Christian and Arab-Muslim. A fifth department is devoted to Greek bronze and marble objects from the underwater excavations of Mahdia. The Bardo Museum is renowned for housing the largest collection of Roman mosaics in the world from Carthage, Sousse, Dougga or El Jem. Some of the works on display are unique, such as the mosaic "known as Virgil". These pieces are a valuable source for research on daily life in Roman Africa. From the same Roman period, the museum also has a rich collection of marble statues representing the deities and Roman emperors. Among the beautiful pieces not to be missed: the grimacing masks, the terracotta statues or the steles of the Libyan-Punic period; the Greek works discovered in the excavations of the Mahdia ship, with the marble bust of Aphrodite and finally the blue Koran of Kairouan in the Islamic department.

If you had to see only one archaeological site of Carthage, it would be this one! The Baths of Antonin are of great beauty. You first enter the site by crossing a large park planted with trees. Just after, the view on the thermal baths and the high preserved column is breathtaking, with the turquoise of the sea in the background. These baths date back to the 2nd century AD. By their size, they are the most impressive remains of Roman Carthage and the third in the Roman world after those of Caracalla and Diocletian in Rome. Only the underground part and some remains remain today. The column of the frigidarium (15 m high), one of the twelve that once supported the ceilings of the baths themselves, has been straightened, allowing us to appreciate the splendor and grandeur of the thermal building. The site covered 16,000 square meters and, when in use, the baths could accommodate up to 200 to 300 people at a time. One can imagine the Romans coming here to take their baths, but also to take advantage of the many amenities on site. Around the thermal baths were located in particular stores. This site today in ruin was a great center of leisure, relaxation but also of business. The Romans came there once a week and stayed from one hour to half a day. The Baths of Antonin were a place of hygiene but also and especially of daily life. A visit not to be missed during your trip to Tunisia!

The theater, which was built during the reign of Hadrian (2nd century), occupies a basin at the foot of the hill. It was damaged and restored many times. Several statues, of which a colossal one of Apollo, today exposed to the museum of Bardo, were discovered during excavations. Today it hosts the famous international festival of Carthage (every year in July and August). Outside the festival, the site is less interesting because it is totally rebuilt, but it gives a good impression of the dimensions of the site at that time.

This museum, also called "the palace of Baron d'Erlanger", is a must-see. Following the road of the cornice, above the bridge, one discovers the former property of Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger, musicologist and benefactor of the village. It is a white and square palace, quite sober, whose construction occupied the baron for twenty years. This British dignitary did a lot for the fame of Sidi Bou Saïd, where he settled in 1912 in the house of his dreams, well in line with the Bou-Saïdian spirit: a fine architecture, integrating stucco and ceramics, Moorish motifs and luminous contrasts. Surrounded by a beautiful park with cypress and pine trees, and with the most beautiful view, it now houses a center and a museum dedicated to music.

Built between 1912 and 1922, the Enneima Ezzahra Palace ("the shining star") is considered an important monument of the Tunisian architectural heritage, where local influences and Andalusian-Maghrebian decorative elements are mixed.

Installed in the palace, the Center for Arab and Mediterranean Music (CMAM) is a multidisciplinary cultural complex dedicated to music and the various fields of musical activity. In addition to the exhibition rooms of exceptional quality, a study and research center has been opened on the premises and an animation (concerts, violin making workshop) gives even more life to the palace. The exhibition presents the most complete collection of musical instruments used in Tunisia to date. It is divided into five main groups: stringed instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments, keyboards, and the Baron's private collection of rare Arab, European and African musical instruments.

Rodolphe d'Erlanger acquired several beautiful houses in the village in order to restore them to their former glory. One of them, Dar Mohsen, became the town hall.

The palace itself is extraordinary: all the objects are arranged in such a way that one can quite imagine what life was like when it was still occupied. The palace houses a rich collection of Arabic manuscripts, art objects of Muslim handicrafts and paintings, including works of the baron himself, because not only was he a musician, he was also a painter. In addition the visit offers a beautiful view of the city of Sidi Bou Said and the port. Not to be missed!

A website dedicated to Greater Tunis, whose vocation is not particularly tourist, but still identifies the major points of interest of the city.

Vibrant heart of the medina, the Great Mosque, accessible from the street Jamâa-ez-Zitouna, which also bears the name of Mosque of the Olive Tree (ez-Zitouna), has a classico-Roman look with its arcades and columns with capitals not very Moorish. The largest mosque in Tunis was first built in 698, when the city was founded, by the Umayyad governor Obeid Allah ibn Al-Habhab, then rebuilt entirely from 856 to 863 by the Aghlabid emir Abu Ibrahim and, thereafter, regularly reworked. It is still very much alive and continues to provide religious instruction and to gather the faithful for the five daily prayers. Its architecture presents certain analogies with the mosque of Kairouan. The hypostyle room, the prayer room, with 15 naves, has no less than 184 columns and ancient capitals, probably from the ruins of Carthage. The monument has undergone many transformations over time. The contribution of the Turks was materialized by the addition of a gallery on three sides of the court (in 1653) and the rise of a new minaret which was replaced in 1834 by a tower of 44 m, with the decoration inspired by the Hispano-Moorish minaret of the mosque of the Kasbah. The Ez-Zitouna mosque housed for centuries the prestigious university that bears its name. Its roof and its prayer room have undergone numerous restoration works since independence. The beautiful porch of the National Library can be seen next to it.

Built on the hillside, it is part of the national heritage, as is the Café des Mats or the Chaabane. In the shopping street there are craftsmen and souvenir merchants, restaurants and pizzerias. To reach the village, you will have to leave your car on the parking lot, already attacked by the souvenir shops. Paved streets climb along beautiful houses for moucharabiehs purposes, graceful iron arabesques, and where all shades of bougainvilleas attract a happy eye.

The tophet of Salammbô, also called tophet of Carthage, is the oldest Punic place in Carthage. In this sanctuary were buried, for seven centuries, small urns containing the ashes of the first-born of the noble families of the city, immolated in sacrifice. With this act, the Carthaginians hoped to see their wishes fulfilled or thanked the divinities for those already realized. Fans of the comic books on the adventures of Alix relive here The Spectre of Carthage. We regret the lack of information and the lack of maintenance of this site.

Located on the seafront, slightly south of the famous Antonine Baths, the Magon district was the last one that had escaped urbanization. The excavations that were carried out there allowed the discovery of the only visible part of the ramparts of Carthage, dating from the end of the 6th or the beginning of the^5th century B.C., with its foundation blocks, one of which weighs more than 13 tons! The excavators were able to determine that there was then an organized urbanism, with streets three meters wide and a way nine meters wide!

A beautiful site by Nicolas Fauqué. The largest library in the country by the photographer of the destination.

The Chammakhi brothers decided one day to revive the family home. It was the first to open its doors to the public, a sort of free living museum. The family, of Djerbian and Berber origin, settled in the medina at the end of the 15th century. Just a stone's throw from the Great Mosque, the land was tiny. It was unthinkable to build an Arabo-Andalusian building with a patio, etc. So they erected an elaborate house, high up on five levels. The house is now converted into a boutique-museum... where everything is for sale!

The medina of Tunis is rich in history... and stories. It is an opportunity to travel back in time through a maze of alleys, between light and shadow. The pleasures of the labyrinth, the happiness of the souks, everything is there. Once past the Gate of France (1848), a vestige of the Hafsid enclosure that enclosed the medina, you enter the historic heart of Tunis, listed by UNESCO as a cultural heritage of humanity. Ancient city, founded thirteen centuries ago by the conquerors of the Byzantine Carthage, the medina is ordered around a great spiritual center, the great Ez-Zitouna mosque. Two arteries start from the door: the street of the Kasbah and the street Jamaa-Ez-Zitouna, both very animated, lined with very picturesque shops. There is everything according to the districts..

The surroundings of the mosque were reserved for the so-called "noble" crafts, while the more polluting trades, forges and tanneries, were confined to the periphery. Today still, quality craftsmen, gathered by corporations, perpetuate this tradition. Originally, the Great Mosque was the politico-religious center where commercial agreements and transactions were also negotiated. Very soon, it lost its secular role and acquired a more and more pronounced sacred character. Its fame as a center of teaching of legal sciences and religious thought attracted, in addition to Tunisian students, many students from the interior of the country and from abroad (Maghreb and Africa). To these students, the medersas offered free accommodation. Relayed today by the modern zeïtounienne university, it continues to dispense a religious teaching and to gather the faithful for the prayer. It is in the morning that the animation is the most lively. Dreamers will find all the charms of the Orient in these souks overflowing with fabrics, carpets, jewelry, leather bags and copper trays. Behind anonymous facades, the aesthetes will discover the splendor of the palaces with walls decorated with superb ceramics and immense domes of finely chiseled stucco. The merchants of the souks still attract passers-by as they did travelers in the Middle Ages. They always offer the most varied goods of Tunisian crafts and trade. One discusses, one haggles, but one is not obliged to buy, even at the end of the longest palavers. Always be kind when someone insists... A small smile and a polite refusal accompanied by an "aichek" (thank you) will touch the seller who will not insist any longer.

The main artery of Tunis. It crosses the whole city center starting from the Place du 14-Janvier and extending to the medina via the Place de l'Indépendance and the Avenue de France. On these Tunisian Champs-Élysées, luxury hotels and 19th century buildings with their heterogeneous architecture rub shoulders. The animation is in full swing around the cinemas, shops, newsstands and cafes. It is on this avenue that took place the great demonstrations of the revolution of January 14, 2011, including near the French embassy.

Built at the end of the 18th century. The grandfather of Mr. Annabi, the current owner, was a mufti and people came to consult him at any time. Embellished and refurbished as a summer residence during the 20th century, this house is now a museum. The patio, in Andalusian style, has a fountain in its center. Some of the rooms are real museums showing the life of the past. There is still a prayer room, a library, a handicraft store and a large exotic garden. The reception is cold and it's a pity.

It is from afar that we realize their importance: these ports were the guarantors of Carthage's power. In ancient times, the city was often referred to as the "empire of the sea". The smallest was the commercial port, the other was the military base. At the time, high walls separated the two ports, but nothing remains of these fortifications that defended them from the maritime threat. During the excavations, Punic remains were brought to light: columns, pavements, objects... Nearby is the Carthage Salammbô oceanographic museum.

Set of aristocratic villas. One of them, named the Volière because of a beautiful mosaic that paved the courtyard, is a peristyle villa with a splendid view of the beach. A stone path following the ancient Roman streets will lead you there. Below it, another villa called "de la Rotonde" has a similar layout and, on the other side of the street, another house called "du cryptoportico" with its beautiful garden has been restored. They are a testimony of the luxury in which the aristocrats of the city lived.

It is slightly below the museum, on the southern slope of the hill of Byrsa, and it appears as it was after the destruction of the city by the Romans. Built at the time of Hannibal, its streets intersect at right angles. From the four viewpoints located on the large Roman foundation walls, one can better appreciate the plans of the different housing units. The district of Byrsa was destroyed and burned down, along with the entire city, in 146 BC.

The former Place du 7 Novembre was renamed Place du 14 Janvier 2011 following the Jasmine Revolution and the fall of President Ben Ali.

The fountain,

in the evening, is illuminated with lights of all colors making the water dance on music projected by speakers around the square, bringing together many Tunisians. Since its renovation, the clock of the square is a strange mix between an Egyptian obelisk and the clock of the Gare de Lyon in Paris. The tower is made of openwork metal, its golden spire is gleaming, and in the evening, the electricity flows through the steel lace that rises towards the starry vault. The fountain, at its foot, silent during the day, becomes musical as soon as the night falls. One of the lively districts of the city is located south of Habib-Bourguiba Avenue, around Farhat-Hached Avenue and Barcelona Square. Small restaurants display French dishes, the atmosphere becomes feverish near the market near the place of Barcelona, the cafes are crowded.

At the height of the IndependenceSquare

, between the French Embassy and the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Cathedral, a neo-Roman building built in 1882, stands the bronze statue of Ibn Khaldun. Behind the cathedral, the rue de Rome leads to the Place de la Monnaie where the museum of the same name is located. You can continue along Avenue Habib-Thameur to Place de la République, where the pleasant Thameur Garden is located, and where Avenue de la Liberté begins, leading to the Lafayette and Belvédère districts.

The shoppingdistrict

is located on the left side of Habib-Bourguiba Avenue, when you go up towards the medina. On Khaldun Street, take a look at the Tunisian Culture House, which offers many exhibitions. This building, which formerly housed the Alliance française, has a beautiful mosaic in its center. The cinemas are numerous.

If you take Farhat-Hachedstreet

on the right, you will arrive at Barcelona square and Mongi-Bali square where the train station is located. In the center of the square stands the statue of Mongi Bali, the founder of the scouts in Tunisia. From there, you can continue by the street Abden-Wasseur, on the right, inhabited by many small shops: newspapers, photos, shoes ...

On

the

left, at the end of the street of Spain, a pedestrian street and very commercial, stands the central market. Semi-covered, open every morning except Sunday, it enchants by its smells, its colors and its animation on the background of Arabic music.

Centre dedicated mainly to ceramics, a collection of zelliges tiles. Very rare pottery from Guellala and Nabeul and many other riches of Tunisian crafts that you will find in the rooms of this ancient residence of character. From the terrace, the view is superb.

Located on a hill north of the city center, this green space of a hundred hectares dominates the city. It is a pleasure to walk in this beautiful green site, in these alleys planted with various species, often Mediterranean: ficus, olive trees, eucalyptus... There is also a health course and a small zoo. Appreciated by the Tunisians, the park is ideal to escape the heat of Tunis and to have a drink in one of the cafes that border the lake. At the end of an alley, a small pavilion, the koubba, a place of relaxation and meditation pleasant.