ruins near carthage Jan 5

We are way behind in our posts - mostly because Terrena is sick (Kaitlyn helped get the last post up so the pictures of the beach could finally be seen!).  These are photos from our Jan 5 trip to the ruins near Carthage.  We found as we entered the sight that there is an entrance fee - but lucky for us it was the one Sunday a month that was free for residents.  We just presented our diplomatic cards and got in for free! Exciting for us - and we went to the museum at Carthage too for free - the view were spectacular!

Richard is admiring the scale (and likely the historical inaccuracy of the 'reassembly' of the ruins as a tourist sight) 

We were trying to figure out in what era this sight was designed as a tourist sight and why there seem to be no documentation of the process used to create the sight.  It is funny how much of an expectation we have as Canadians that things are well labelled and explained.  We may have to let that go....

Walking along the higher ground gave us a nice perspective of the scale of the amphitheatre and what that may have represented to citizens when it was a 'working' establishment built by the Romans in the first century AD.

This shows with our feet on top just how big some of the stones at the sight actually are - too heavy to lift without lots of help or specialized equipment or both.  I cannot imagine the effort that went into hand carving these stones.....and placing them!

The metal work is obviously not original but it is impressive none the less!

The stone work here is likely not original but seems to be the best guess of those who restored the amphitheatre ruins likely in the early 20th century.

Climbing rocks is always a family favourite!

We moved on from that site to the nearby Carthage Museum

The museum is on an hill (the hill of Brysa) and the kids got out of the car and could not wait to look out over the city!

The site of the museum also contains the cathedral of Saint Louis built during 1884-1890. In addition this is also a well known tourist trap - with large tour buses from Italy and the cruise ships popping up - so the industrious Tunisians outside will try to sell you all manner of things and speak to you in your native language.  It was very funny to us when they asked -Italian, German, American, Russian?  We answered Canadian and they looked shocked and said nothing to us and went away!!  Ah Canada - what can you say?

The view - amazing!!

It was a bit rainy that day and you can see the storm clouds moving in from the ocean.

Ruins visible from the museum site.

Parts of Tunis are visible and quite lovely from this vantage point on the hill.

It was a lovely day and we capped it off with a seafood lunch/early dinner (which we paid too much for again!) but very enjoyable!!

We are inside today because it is the anniversary of the revolution here in Tunisia.  More about that soon- we still feel very lucky and happy to be here in this historic and ever evolving country!