Tunisia - El Jem

The first stop on the journey was the town of El Jem which has one of the best preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. It is a copy of the Colosseum in Rome, almost as big (148 m long, 122 m wide and 36 m tall), and is in better condition. It was constructed from 230 to 238 A.D. to house about 35,000 spectators, and the stones were brought from 30 km away to build it. Unfortunately, part of the wall was destroyed in 1695 when it was "cannonballed" in order to uncover the dissidents against the Ottoman empire who were hiding there. Nonetheless, the amphitheatre remains very impressive. Walking around the dungeon area, it was rather eerie to think that this was where gladiators waited to fight wild animals (lions, panthers, bears, etc.) or prisoners waited for certain destruction by their jaws and claws. Over the years, the colosseum was used as a fighting arena, as well as a refuge for rebels and outcasts. More recently, it was used as a film set for The Gladiator (starring Russell Crowe).

The town of El Jem

We had to walk by the tourist trap market (bottom right of picture) to get into the colosseum. The people are very aggressive trying to sell you their wares. I just put my head down and kept walking. Occasionally I had to dart away from a man trying to wrap a scarf around my head. This type of market would be commonplace over the next 2 days. I became very good at saying no!

The amphitheatre

Where all the action took place

Inside the doors on the ground level were where the lifts would bring up the gladiators, prisoners, and the wild animals from the dungeons who would then come out the doors to fight

This end of the colosseum was destroyed in 1695 by the cannonball attack