Travel Guide Siliana

Siliana is located at 35 km from Makhtar. Coming from Makhtar, a beautiful viewpoint at the top of the pass discovers the plain towards Kairouan and Siliana to the north. Farms and cultivated fields stretch around the city. The visit of Siliana does not include Roman monuments nor traces of the civilizations which marked the history of the country. This city of about 31 000 inhabitants is content to be animated around its main avenue. Living from agriculture and in particular from olive growing, thanks to the Siliana dam located further in the valley, it offers the opportunity to dive into the rural reality. Its squared plan allows an easy location. The center is made up of two parallel streets, cut by a transverse passing in front of the market; one finds there a crowd of cafés where one smokes the chicha and nibbles skewers. Its beautiful administrative buildings are outside, on the main avenue of the Tunis-Makhtar axis. To the north, towards Dougga, the artificial lake formed by the dam runs along a hilly terrain and large rural areas reminiscent of Tuscany in places. It is near Siliana, on the battlefield of Zama, that Hannibal lost his last hope to put an end to the Roman hegemony. It is there that in 202 BC. Scipio the African inflicted him the historical defeat which broke the dream of the Carthaginian general...