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| The Amphitheater of El Djem Listed:1979 El Djem’s amphitheater is a marvel of Roman civic architecture and one of the best preserved of its kind. The third century A.D, construction was the largest coliseum in North Africa and could accommodate more than 30,000 spectators, exceeding even the population of Thysdrus (El Djem) itself. In 238, the aging North African proconsul Gordian was proclaimed emperor in the Coliseum during the Liberalia celebrations by a group of rebels revolting against Emperor Maximus. In more modern times, the amphitheater serves as the venue for a summer symphonic festival. Carthage Listed:1979 Carthage was founded in the ninth century B.C. on the shores of the Gulf of Tunis by exiled Pheonicians who converted the colony into a great maritime and trading empire covering a large part of the Mediterranean. Rival Roman ambitions prompted the drawn out Punic Wars, which climaxed with the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. and its subsequent razing to the ground. The Roman victors covered the ruins with salt in an attempt to obliterate its memory from history. In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar refounded Carthage as a symbol of the planned resurrection of Africa and it grew to become the second city of the empire after Rome. The Medina of Tunis Listed:1979 In the eight century and to a greater extent in the ninth century, the Arabs set about building the monuments that still from the heart of the Medina. Under the reign of the Hafcides dynasty, from the 12th to the 16th centuries, Tunis was considered one of the greatest and wealthiest cities in the Islamic world. Subsequent generations have left behind an inventory of some 700 buildings including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, medersas (schools) and fountains, blending styles that testify to the city remarkable, cosmopolitan history. Ichkeul National Park Listed: 1980 The Ichkeul lake and wetlands are a stop-over point for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds, such as ducks, geese, storks and pink flamingoes, among others, who come to feed and nest there. The Lake is the last of a chain of lakes that once extended over North Africa. The Ichkeul National Park is one of the rarest lakes in the world, with fresh water during the winter and salt water during the summer. This richness attracts large numbers of migratory bird coming from Northern Europe and Asia The park was included on the list of World Heritage in Danger in 1996 as a result of the significant deterioration in the characteristics for which it had been inscribed. The construction of three damns on rivers feeding lake Ichkeul and its marshes had cut off almost all inflow of fresh waters, causing a destructive increase in the salinity of the lake and marshes with its consequent reduction in the migratory bird population that depended on the habitat the lake formerly provided. Kerkouane Listed:1985 Discovered in 1952, this is the largest Punic site yet found. The town, which was founded in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C., is thought to have been devoted to the production of a purple dye made from a shellfish called murex know by the Romans as Tyrian purple after the Pheonician capital of Tyre. Abandoned in 250 B.C., almost all the houses in the town follow the same ground plan- a narrow corridor opening onto a small courtyard with a well and sometimes an altar to household gods- and are remarkable for their baths with pink and white mosaics. The Sousse Medina Listed 1988 Sousse, which was an important commercial and military port in Aghlabid times (800-909), is a typical example of a town dating from the first centuries of Islam. With its Kasbah, ramparts, medina, with the great mosque, Bu Fata mosque and ribat (fortress-cum-monastery), Sousse formed part of a costal defense system for the holy city of Kairouan. Kairouan Listed:1988 Founded in 670, Kairouan flourished under the Aghalbid dynasty in the ninth century. Despite the transfer of the political capital to Tunis in the 12th century, Kairouan continued to be the principal holy city in the Maghreb. Its rich architectural heritage includes the great Oqba mosque and the ninth-century Mosque of the three gates. Dougga Listed:1997 Before the Roman annexation of Numidia, the town of Thugga, built on an elevated site overlooking a fertile plain, was the capital of an important Punic state. It flourished under Roman and Byzantine rule, but decline during the Islamic period. The ruins visible today bear impressive witness to the resources of a small Roman town on the edges of the Empire. |
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| PromoTunisia Exploration & Leisure |
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| PromoTunisia specializes in guided holidays around cultural themes such as music, festivals,cuisine, arts & traditions to provide our travelers with a Tunisian people experience. |
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| Tunisia's World Heritage List |
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