Tunisia - 28 September 2010 (1)

Sbeitla

Olive Press

I got up at 06.00 and was ready and almost packed by 07.00 for breakfast.  We recognised a few people in the dining room as we had passed them on our travels.  Although there were so few other tourists on the route, there were not that many hotels either, so it was inevitable that we should encounter the same people.  One of the good things about Tunisia (which was even more true in Libya), was that we almost had the ancient sites to ourselves when we visited them.  It was great to be able to listen to our guides without hearing the same tale in French or German and not to have lots of strangers cluttering the photos.

Mosaic in Baptismal Font

Palaestra in the Baths

As we drove out of town, Lotfi pointed out the statues of desert foxes with extremely long ears and wearing blue track suits.  These are Labib and his sons and were the creation of the Ministry of the Environment to encourage people, especially children, to keep Tunisia tidy and to save energy and water.  We passed these statues several times on our journey.

Underfloor Heating in Baths

Basilica

Our main site today was Sbeitla.  On the way there, we saw a monument of an apple, so we stopped to take photos.  We had a mini-revolt and went straight into a café, where Kim treated us all to coffee.  Next stop on the journey was at a roadside stall selling apples.  Lotfi said that they were a good price at D1.500/kg.  I never buy apples, so could not comment on the price, but I did buy a kilo here as I was starting to realise that vegetarian food would be hard to come by at times and I needed to eat more fruit.  I ate one of the apples at once and it was all right.

Theatre

Antonine Gate

Sbeitla was quite an impressive site.  It covered a large area which, unlike Dougga, was flat.  We walked round the whole site, starting at the olive press and then moved on to the baths.  There was a heavily restored theatre near the dry river valley, where we had a brief rest.  Sbeitla is famous for its six churches or basilicas.  As in Rome, some had originally been Roman temples, but had been converted when Christianity took hold.  Some of them had ornate, mosaic covered baptismal fonts and there were other mosaics on the floors.  The best area on the site was the forum, which boasted three impressive temples – to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva – on one side.  We approached the forum through the Antonine Gate and I spent quite a long time standing there, enjoying the cool breeze which was blowing through.

Temples in the Forum

Basin in Basilica of St Vitalis

We walked back to the entrance, which was an enclosed area on the other side of the road, with a few shops in an inner courtyard.  There was some confusion over lunch.  Lotfi wanted to take us to a pizzeria, but Ruth decided that we could buy food from the shops in the courtyard instead.  The food was very limited, so I had to settle for a muffin with some bad tasting chocolate cream inside and some water.  One of the complaints I did have about the tour was that there were quite a lot of “picnic” lunches with food gleaned from small supermarkets.  Without proper utensils, it wasn't that easy to find things to eat.

Font in Basilica of St Vitalis

Mosaic in Basilica