Roman Tunisia

5/18/2008 8:00pm by 703


The pride and joy of the Bardo Museum. This mosaic is from Homer’s Odyssey as Ulysses’ ship approached the Island of the Sirens. The mosaic was found in Dougga and dates to around 260AD. If you enjoy mosaics, this museum is something to see.


A variety of mosaics to fit every surface.

Just a small piece of a massive floor mosaic that must have been around 15′ by 30′ or more. Instead of carpets, the wealthy Romans would decorate their floors with mosaics.

A thin strip of a beautiful mosaic at the Bardo Museum in Tunis. People say it holds the best collection of Roman-era mosaics in the world. Most of the collection is from El Jem, Dougga or Carthage, Tunisia.


The El Jem Roman theater held up to 35,000 spectators and is in remarkably good condition. In the middle of the arena floor you can see where they opened up the floor to allow light down below.


A thick stone ’tile’ of sorts that is at ground level, allowing light down into the storage cave below.


Same ’tile’ as above, but from underground.


Walking below ground level at the El Jem Roman amphitheater built in the 3rd century AD. This is where the animals would have been kept until being moved above ground for the Roman events. They opened up the ground floor (overhead) to allow in extra light for visitors.

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An American in Paris, France. BA in History & Political Science from Ohio State. Provided consulting services to US software startups, launching new business overseas that have both IPO’d and sold to well-known global software companies. Currently launching a new cloud-based startup for the Microsoft market. Full bio here.

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