Exploring the Antonin Baths. March 7, 2k8

On my next and final outing in Tunisia I made my way, again by train, to the extensive Roman bath complex about 10km north of Tunis. These magnificent baths were built during the reign of Antonin around 200 CE to add a Latin architectural element the Roman takeover of Carthage. The baths and their surrounding gardens occupied a prime seafront local about 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer right next to the burgeoning city of Carthage.

Walking towards the ruins today, one must pass through a botanical garden containing many varieties of leafy tropical plants and colorful singing birds flying from treetop to treetop. There are strange plastic telephone booth sized booths every 100 meters housing bored yet serious looking young men in guard uniforms. Serious because each one of the twenty or so I saw carried a mean looking machine guns slung over their shoulders.


It looked like the young guards were prepared to suppress a major theft attempt of what was left of the Antonin Bath, which, after centuries of neglect and purposeful destruction by the Vandals in 500 CE, was no significant amount. Indeed, it took a large effort on the part of my imagination to reconstruct what these ruins might once have looked like in their glory days. With over 400 columns, 20 domes, and arches spanning 60 feet, the Antonin Baths must have been a sight to rival any of the wonders of the ancient world.

Reading an information plaque, I saw a reconstructed floor plan of the baths that boasted dozens of rooms, both big and small, all playing some role in the function of the structure. There were steam rooms, hot water rooms, cold water rooms, massage rooms, smoking rooms, eating rooms, socializing rooms, business rooms, and, no doubt, fornicating rooms. It was like a miniature city, with all of its different parts all playing a role in the functioning of the whole.


Today all that remains are a few imposingly tall columns still in their original places, and seemingly endless miles of underground passages, water storage canals and chambers. And of course Roman arches to be seen everywhere – their most enduring architectural legacy to the world.



The setting of the baths right by the sea is beautiful in its own right; perfectly capturing the symbiotic relationship between humankind and nature. The Romans ingeniously made use of the tide water to clean out certain parts of the baths, saving themselves the trouble.


The Antonin Baths represent the height of Roman bath building, and came only after centuries of building other, lesser baths in all parts of the Roman Empire.

- XNM

Exploring a Roman villa and theater, February 25, 2k8.

One sunny day I decided to take a short train ride outside of Tunis to visit the ruins of a Roman villa and theater that were located about 30km east of the city. By now I was familiar enough with the local trains to be able to buy my ticket and board my train without having to ask for help. A scenic 45 minute ride through a flat dry countryside brought me to my destination near the coast.


Following the crudely drawn map in my guide book, I walked over dusty hills until I came upon the guard booth in front of the Roman villa. I paid a few dollars to get in the gates, and proceeded to walk to the highest vantage point in the area. The extent of the ruins was impressive. Stretching for almost 500m in every direction rock walls and stone columns holding up nonexistent roofs were all I could see. Interspersed between the ruins of this once great household were palm trees and broken statues, and a few Tunisian men sitting under the shade of a tree talking quietly.

I came to the main house and found it to be in quite good repair compared to the rest of the villa. I noticed they had mosaics on the floors similar to those at Carthage. From the top of the hill I saw a Tunisian man wearing a suit and a Tunisian lady wearing a head scarf and covering her face with a black cloth standing near the entrance gate looking around them. They seemed to be here for the same reason I was, but the man quickly started talking on his cell phone and the woman sat down and stared at the ground lost in her own thoughts.

Between the Roman villa and the Roman theater I walked through a wealthy suburb that housed many magnificent modern villas, and a number of embassies.







The theater was deserted when I arrived, and I took my time strolling along its ancient benches, sitting and imagining a Greek tragedy being performed as they were 2,000 years ago. After a while a family speaking French arrived and their chattering quickly dispelled the magic of the place and I left.

Walking back to the train station I decided to pass along the water front. I sat on the rocks and dangled my feet in the slightly chilly Mediterranean waters as a local fisherman cast his line in the sea nearby. Beached in the sand were a collection of small fishing boats and a mysterious barricade of barbed wire separating one side of the beach from the other. The sun was getting low in the sky as I boarded the train back to the center of Tunis, satisfied with the days exploration.


- XNM

The ruins of ancient Carthage, February 18, 2k8

Walking amongst the ruins of ancient Carthage one has a sense of that great Phoenician empire which rose and fell on these dusty plains of Northern Africa. Only a thirty minute train ride away from the center of modern Tunis, the ruins of Carthage belong to a time over 2,500 years ago, when mighty empires rose and fell, and the entire Mediterranean world trembled with the clashing between Carthage and her arch-rival, Rome. Over the course of the three Punic wars lasting from 263-146 BCE, Carthage saw her overseas domains taken away from her, her trade fleet and navy reduced to insignificance, and finally the very city of Carthage itself reduced to rubble and strewn with salt so nothing would grow there for 1,000 years. The victorious Romans stopped at nothing in their quest to humble and humiliate their once fearsome foes in the Mediterranean, for in doing so they intimidated the Mesopotamian empires to the east, and the barbarian Gauls and Germans to the west, into submission and fear of what Rome was capable of when pushed to her full fury.



A feeling of peace stole over me as I explored the ruins of this once great city and the heart of an ancient empire. For what do our trials and tribulations mean when compared to the hardships faced by those in the past? How could we ever comprehend the feeling of utter loss the Carthaginians surely felt at the utter destruction of their city, the dissolution of their empire, and the enslavement of their entire population by the Romans? We can take solace in history because it provides for us a new perspective from which to view our own lives from.




The defaced statues and broken columns remaining at the ruins of Carthage tell a story of 2,500 years of plunder by Romans, Vandals, Berbers, Muslims, and French. Even the little that remains is a testament to the superb craftsmanship of the Carthaginian buildings, and to luck that a few statues remain intact to today. And the mosaics which remain show the beautiful craftsmanship Carthaginian artisans were capable of. But even if there were nothing tangible left of ancient Carthage, would I still get a feeling of timelessness when I stood on the ground where so many decisions had been made so long ago? Would I still know it was there, buried deep in the Earth underneath me? The quest for that answer drives me to travel and keep on visiting these ancient places in search of the truth.




- XNM

Hi all. After about 36 hours traveling Im in Tunis now. This week Im looking for an apartment and trying to enroll in language schools. I have located a market where I buy my food every day, and am getting to know the traffic over here. Depending on how long it takes I will upload a few photos today.

First Post

Hi from Red. This is my first post. T-12 days and counting.