The first stop we made on the tour was in the small town, El Jem, where the fantastic theatre "Amphitheatre" is located. The impressive ruins are the largest coliseum in North Africa and are 1800 years old - at this time the theatre was used for gladiator fights.

The city has 25,000 inhabitants, but the theatre has room for 35000 spectators. Amphitheatre is just 1 out of 17 Roman building in El Jem, but it is certainly the most impressive building to visit. The theatre is divided into three key elements; "The Arena", "The Cathea", which is for the spectators and "The Speena" which are caves below the theatre, where the animals was put.

 

Amphitheatre has been destroyed and rebuilt many times and the last time they rebuilt the theatre, was 12 years ago. The stones of the theatre are not from El Jem but from a town about 30 km away. They were transported by horse carts, donkeys and camels and it was therefore hard work just to transport the stones. You can see seashells in many of the stones, because the city they are taken from is located next to the sea.

 

Each year in August, Amphitheatre hosts festivals with symphonic music. The festival attracts many different orchestras, including Orchestra of the Opera Ball in Vienna, the National Symphony Orchestra in Algeria, Philharmonic Orchestra of Rome and of course many Tunisian orchestras.

 

A final fun factor is that the film Gladiator 2000 was recorded in the Amphitheatre and we therefore had to watch the movie as soon as we got back to the hotel.

 

The guide was good at giving different information about all the places we visited during the whole trip, but especially about the Amphitheatre, as there is much history behind.

You decide for yourself whether you want to follow the guide around or if you just want to look and read the various information on your own. You are certainly not bound, by the group all the time.

 

We got our legs trained, with all the stairs we went up and down, but it certainly was worth it with the stunning views and all the beautiful pictures we took. It was a very good experience and very exciting to see the beautiful architecture.