Lauren Keith

Lauren Keithhttps://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/about/contributors/lauren-keithLauren Keithhttps://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/explore/north-africa/tunisia/why-tunis-is-africas-rising-starNomad Lauren shares why the attractions of Tunis rival Marrakech, Cairo, and Rome, but without the crowds.2021-03-15T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/explore/north-africa/tunisia/why-tunis-is-africas-rising-starhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p class="p2">By flying under the radar, Tunisia’s under-visited capital retains an authentic sense of self. It’s easy to draw comparisons to better known – and widely diverse – doppelgangers elsewhere around the Mediterranean, and it’s this improbable mixture of place that makes Tunis so dynamically different.</p> <h2 class="p1"><b>The UNESCO-listed Medina of Tunis</b></h2> <p class="p1">I wander through the tangled alleyways of Tunis’ Medina – the old walled part of town that’s a common feature of ancient North African cities – accepting the adventure that comes in getting lost in a square mile of labyrinthine lanes. The UNESCO-listed Medina was founded as a settlement in 698 AD, and for more than a millennium, the city existed only within these walls. Today, tradition still reigns supreme. Centuries-old mosques and markets continue to be local meeting points, and the elaborate bathhouses, mausoleums, fountains, and palaces, hidden behind brightly painted, metal-studded doors, hark back to a well-pampered past.</p> <p class="p1">As I walk, I notice that the squeezed-in shops cater for residents’ needs, instead of being stuffed to the brim with the imported tourist tat that’s sadly taken over medina stalls in neighboring countries. Marrakesh and Fez in Morocco have become the poster children of the North African medina experience, but because of their popularity, some visitors come away feeling like they’re all for show, a Disney-fied construction instead of a living, breathing neighborhood.</p> <p class="p3">Stopping me in my tracks, a shopkeeper, genuinely curious about how I ended up here, offers me a glass of piping hot mint tea that doesn’t come with a strings-attached sales pitch. Instead, after a cobbled-together conversation, he sends me on my way with a humble request: “Please tell all your friends to visit us.”</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/tunisia/tunis-medina-getty-179138835-dark_eni.jpg" alt="“Medina" of="" tunis="" /><figcaption>The Medina of Tunis. Photo credit: Getty Images / Dark_Eni</figcaption></figure> <h2><b>Roman ruins in Carthage</b></h2> <p class="p2">I take the rickety, suburban TGM train a few stops out of the city center to Carthage, a well-to-do suburb whose very name carries the heavyweight of history as one of the ancient world’s wealthiest cities and most important trading ports. I huff and puff to the top of Byrsa Hill, where the ruins of a Phoenician-era neighborhood from the first millennium BC poke out from the earth, its street grid still intact. In the distance, the Gulf of Tunis glitters blue in the sunlight, and I follow its magnetic pull down to the Roman-built seaside Antonine Baths, the largest bathhouse outside ancient Rome. I imagine the Romans relaxing among this sprawling complex, the water and ocean views a balm for this seafaring civilization.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/tunisia/carthage-lauren-keith.jpg" alt="“Ruins" at="" carthage="" /> <figcaption>Ruins at Carthage. Photo credit: Lauren Keith</figcaption></figure> <p class="p2"><b></b></p> <h2 class="p1"><b>Sidi Bou Saïd</b></h2> <p class="p1">If visitors know anywhere in greater Tunis, it’s undoubtedly Sidi Bou Saïd, a postcard-perfect clifftop village that’s perched precariously above the sea. I hop back on the TGM train heading away from the city, and then disembark and climb the hill up to the whitewashed town.</p> <p class="p3">Sidi Bou Saïd is the only place where I encounter people who are obviously visitors, who have come to take selfies on the cobbled lanes and snack on <i>bambalouni</i>, a donut-like ring of honey-soaked, oil-fried dough. I can’t resist one either, as I slowly wander past the brightly contrasting ocean-blue window shutters, arched doors and umbrella tops against the chalky buildings. If I didn’t have my bearings, I could have sworn that I had gotten off the train in Santorini. I drop into an elevated, open-air cafe for a mint tea and slouch into a front-row seat for an afternoon of people-watching, and then a lazy gaze at the sky as it turns pastel come twilight.  </p> <h2 class="p3"><b>Bardo National Museum</b></h2> <p class="p1">The next morning, I take the tram to the Bardo, easily one of Africa’s finest museums, which houses a priceless collection of Roman mosaics that have been uprooted from archeological sites across the country in the name of preservation, as well as artifacts from other civilizations. It’s not only the wonderful, nearly complete mosaics that make me gasp, but also the setting – inside the palace of an Ottoman monarch, which would be museum-worthy even without any collections. Blankets of ancient Roman tiles lie under intricately carved domes, can be observed from grand balconies, and lead to small patios with marble fountains. I’m utterly transported by the exhibits, as I have been by the rest of my experiences in Tunis.</p> <p class="p3">With offerings that rival the medinas of Morocco, the museums of Cairo, and the ruins of Rome, the capital of North Africa’s smallest nation has cultural cache to spare.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/tunisia/bardo-museum-lauren-keith.jpg" alt="“Bardo" museum="" tunis="" /> <figcaption>Bardo Museum, Tunis. Photo credit: Lauren Keith</figcaption></figure> <h2 class="p1"><b>Trip Notes</b></h2> <p class="p1">Most international flights land at Tunis-Carthage International Airport, and it’s best to arrange a transfer through your accommodation, as the taxi cartel will ensure that you’re paying double the standard fare, or more. Fortunately, outside of the airport, taxi prices are reasonable for getting around the city.</p> <p class="p1">A suburban train line, The <span class="s2">Tunis-Goulette-Marsa</span> (TGM), runs from central Tunis to Carthage and Sidi Bou Saïd, and a tram system operates within Tunis. Public transit tickets can cost as little as 0.7 Tunisian dinar (about US $0.25).</p> <p class="p1">As independent travelers have not been a huge part of Tunis’ economy for many years, knowing a few phrases in French or Arabic is helpful. Older, traditional neighborhoods such as the medina tend to be more conservative, so both men and women should dress to cover everything between their elbows and knees.</p> <p class="p1">Accommodation can be found all over the city, but the most atmospheric choices cluster in the medina and Sidi Bou Saïd.</p>Lauren Keith 0

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/explore/north-africa/tunisia/road-trip-through-roman-africaFar from the beaches (and the crowds), the Tunisian countryside is strewn with ancient Roman cities just as intriguing as their counterparts across the Mediterranean.2019-05-31T10:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/explore/north-africa/tunisia/road-trip-through-roman-africahttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>Tunisia’s 700 miles (1125 km) of Mediterranean coastline have long been prime real estate for European sun-seekers. But, I found the country’s true heart is not among the sprawling beach resorts, but hidden away in its central core, a rural, welcoming land that not enough travelers make time to explore.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#dougga">Dougga</a></li> <li><a href="#thuburbo">Thuburbo Majus</a></li> <li><a href="#takrouna">Takrouna</a></li> <li><a href="#trip-notes">Trip Notes</a></li> </ul> <p>The April sun warms the car keys in my hand. I’m not fully sure what I’m getting myself into; since the Arab Spring revolution, which started in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bou Zid in late 2010 and later engulfed most of the region, there was little tourist information to be found. Two terrorist attacks in 2015, and the subsequent travel warnings, which have now been lifted, ensured that North Africa’s smallest country had fallen off travelers’ radar. But I’m determined to see what has been lost from our collective maps.</p> <p>The historical importance of Tunisia’s remote interior has been clear for millennia. When the ancient Romans arrived, they named this small slice of their empire “Africa” and built extravagant cities on the foundations of Berber and Phoenician settlements to look after the olive groves and grain fields that spread over the surrounding hills.</p> <p>I find the ruined cities, reused by subsequent civilizations and then abandoned and left to the elements, just as intriguing as their counterparts on the other side of the Mediterranean, but scarcely visited, even though the entry price is a fraction of Italy’s.</p> <p>The farther I get from Tunis, the more likely it is that the only other souls joining me at the site are a passing shepherd and his flock. On my journey through central Tunisia, I witness a new kind of spring that I am sure would consume the country: this time, Tunisia is blossoming, hopeful and ready to turn over a new leaf and dive into its next chapter.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/tunisia/dougga-theater.jpg" /><figcaption>The theater at Dougga. Image credit: Lauren Keith</figcaption></figure> <h2 id="dougga">Dougga</h2> <p>In my head, images of dusty, parched landscapes and flat stretches of nothingness had been firmly planted, but the drive to Dougga, one of Roman Africa’s best-preserved ancient cities, is anything but.</p> <p>Taking the scenic route through the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it towns of Thibar and Teboursouk leads me through lush fields of purple and yellow wildflowers waving me along in the wind and – much to my surprise – hairpin turns through the increasingly rugged hills surrounding the highway. Dougga is set into one of these hillsides, offering a million-dollar view of the surrounding countryside that the well-to-do Romans must have enjoyed from the nosebleed section of the 3,500-seat theater or the extensive bathhouse, which still has some mosaics in situ.</p> <h2 id="thuburbo">Thuburbo Majus</h2> <p>Winding through perfectly planted groves of olive trees and through low mountain passes, the lonely highway wanders past ancient monuments scattered in farmers’ fields, apparently too numerous to take the time to signpost.</p> <p>After a few hours of seeing hardly any vehicles but tractors on the road, I stop at Thuburbo Majus, another ruined Roman city of unimaginable wealth, blessed by the wheat, grape, and olive crops that are still planted here thousands of years later. The war veterans that were the town’s original residents competed with one another to construct ever grander buildings and mosaics, on this day seen only by me, the site’s lonesome caretaker, and the chirping swallows darting out of the overgrown grass as I walk by.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/tunisia/thuburbo.jpg" /><figcaption>Ancient mosaics at Thuburbo Majus. Image credit: Lauren Keith</figcaption></figure> <h2 id="takrouna">Takrouna</h2> <p>Driving around the hills of Zaghouan, I puzzle over the clifftop rock formations that look like water-etched fortresses of stone, too well-sculpted to be accidental, but too well-camouflaged to be fully man made. The asphalt twists and turns towards the summit, and at the road’s end, the remnants of a semi-abandoned Berber village come into view.</p> <p>The inhabitants had decamped to the base of the hill years ago, but some enterprising locals are breathing new life into their old home. A welcome cafe has set up shop with panoramic views down to the valley floor and, on clear days, all the way out to the Mediterranean.</p> <p>After being served a coffee sprinkled with orange blossom, the cafe manager asks if I’d like to take a look at a small museum of Berber artifacts next door. As he gingerly unlocks the door and shows me inside, I know I have discovered the true essence of Tunisia, full of eager locals ready for curious visitors who will venture beyond the beach and find its heart for themselves.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/tunisia/takrouna-museum.jpg" /><figcaption>Museum of Berber artifacts in Takrouna. Image credit: Lauren Keith</figcaption></figure> <h2 id="trip-notes">Trip Notes</h2> <p>Most international flights land at Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunisia’s capital city, and it’s easiest to pick up a rental car here. Unless you speak French or Arabic, stick with a well-known international rental car company so that if you need assistance, it’s easy to explain the situation in English. You can also explore by train, bus, or <em>louage</em> (the country-wide network of shared minibus taxis).</p> <p>Staying overnight in a <em>dar,</em> (a traditionally designed house, decked out in North African tiles and textiles, that’s similar to a riad in Morocco), is a highlight of a visit to Tunisia. Almost every town has at least one <em>dar,</em> but as family homes, they are often not distinguishable from the outside.</p> <p>Tunisia’s archeological sites have poor, if any, signage, so to get the most out of your visit, use a local company, such as Tunisian Journeys, to arrange a driver-guide who will bring the sites to life and make reservations at dars along the way.</p>Getty Images / Rosita So Image 0486319463 Getty Images The ancient Roman city of Dougga in central Tunisia.