Of course, 1800 years ago this was most certainly SOMEWHERE; not deprived El Jem but sophisticated Thyrsus, a gracious community of wealthy grain and olive oil magnates at a crossroads on the busy highway between the provincial capitals of Carthage and Leptis Magna. The impressive arena was a gift to the city from local boy made good Gordian I, who was
briefly emperor before committing suicide. We encountered Gordian in bust form at the Bardo, and he did look like a poster child for stress. 
But he built a fine stadium.It held 30,000 -- more than the city's population -- so was obviously an entertainment draw for the whole region.
El Jem is known these days as the world's most perfectly preserved Roman amphitheatre. This is probably a superlative too far. Verona's version has a much more intact seating area and a more complete circuit of exterior walls. But El Jem has three things I've never seen before.
First, three complete levels of stairs and internal corridors, so you can climb all the way to the top and marvel at how little sports stadia design has changed since the Romans invented it. Second, this certainly must be the world's best preserved arena floor. The full ring of walls that separated gladiator from the best seats is intact, still punctuated at regular intervals with the doors
through which performers came on and off. It is startling, standing on the packed dirt of the arena floor, to realise just how close observers were to the action. Certainly it mustn't have been unusual for the wealthy patrons in the best seats to get sprayed with blood. I strongly suspect that was part of the allure.The third unusual feature is the completeness of the subterranean "backstage" area, where gladiators, animals and sets would have been massed before heading up, often through trap doors, to wow the crowds.
The El Jem complex is big, and, given the meagre huddle of buildings around it today, seems even bigger. This is a relatively flat part of the country and we could see the amphitheatre from miles off on our approach. The modern town is comprised of one and two story stucco buildings, many in a poor state of repair, with no obvious plan to the streets and a crazy bustle of natives, many in traditional dress, going about their business by car, motor scooter or donkey cart. It reminded me vividly of photos I've seen of Afghanistan.
So, needless to say, there's not a lot to see in El Jem beyond its star sight. The little town museum, however, is a pleasant surprise and should not be missed by anyone who's made the effort to get all the way out here. It's perhaps a quarter mile from the arena, on the outskirts of town.
The relatively modern building is constructed in Roman style, with large rooms grouped around open courtyards. The collection is mostly mosaics pulled up from local houses. Another indication of how different life was here once; these people lived WELL. Though far smaller, the
collection here has quality to match the Bardo. Doors from several galleries lead to porticos and beyond that to an area of excavations where you can wander around the remains of several villas, with many of their floors intact.At one side is the so called "Africa House" a villa that was moved here piece by piece from the centre of town and then partially reconstructed so you can get a feel for some of the rooms once they're walled and roofed. The double story dining room with its transom windows, lavish mosaic pavement and one side open to a peristyle court planted with a garden was particularly evocative.
The drive to and from El Jem took about 90 minutes each way, and despite the fact that this is the main road to the south, wasn't particularly crowded once we cleared the traffic around Sousse. As on the road to Dougga, we saw seemingly endless miles of olive trees. Increasingly curious, I dug around on my Blackberry and discovered that Tunisia is the world's 4th largest exporter after Italy, Greece and Spain. They've just done a rotten job of marketing and a lot of their oil is disappearing behind brands that are bottled, but not produced, in the top three producing countries.
The other consistent feature of the landscape is construction. Buildings are in the works everywhere, although many of them seem to have been abandoned mid-way. Construction appears to be uniformly made of terracotta, honeycombed breeze blocks. This all looks rather slapdash, but once covered with stucco appears sturdy. They're then decorated with an abundance of columns, tiles, moulded cement arabesque plaques and statues. The Tunisians do seem to love their decorative detail. All this seems to be available at tiny construction supply yards packed with decorative details and placed frequently along the road. I've never been to a country where builder's supply seems so abundant. And yet these homes are going up in seedy villages awash with trash, cheek by jowl with ancient hovels. I suppose that's one of the enduring paradoxes of the developing world.
We arrived back at the hotel at 2. (Driver for half day was 120 dinar plus tip) In time for Hillary and Lisa to disappear to the spa for more treatments and me to head to the pool. Unfortunately, the rainclouds that opened our trip had returned and it was a bit cool. But that, wrapped in spa bathrobe and a big beach towel, just made for lovely napping weather. The sun did return for a bit in the late afternoon. Which made the view from our westward facing balcony particularly lovely as we watched sunset colour the sky and killed off the last of the wine we'd bought at duty free on arrival.
Eventually we headed back to the port one last time and, based on the past 3 nights, returned to Les Emirs for dinner. The staff was particularly glad to see us, encouraging us to order more drinks and scattering the table with rose petals. Must have been a slow night. Before consuming too much wine we toted up the spa and restaurant bills, getting everything into balance before heading home. We were all in perfect agreement: Tunisia delivered to, and beyond, our expectations for a fantastic holiday.
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