El Jem Travel Guide

 Muzzaa Says:  The Colosseum in El Jem is an incredible sight. It is near the size of the one in Rome and is open to explore. You can climb to it's highest point, and go undernear to the old pits. Tourists are not nearly as plentiful during the low season, so there are times that you share... 

 Muzzaa Says:  The price for the museum is included in your ticket for the Colosseum and I would recommend going to see it. Our experience there rivalled the one we had at the Bardo. The museum here does not have near the collection the Bardo has, but the mosaics they do have, as well as... 

 kris-t Says:  El Djem is famous for its amphitheatre (often incorrectly called "a colosseum"), capable of seating 35,000 spectators. Only Rome's Colosseum (about 45,000 spectators) and the ruined theatre of Capua are larger. The amphitheatre at El Djem was built by the Romans under... 

 kris-t Says:  Until the 17th century it remained more or less whole. From then on its stones were used for building the nearby village of El Djem and transported to the Great Mosque in Kairouan, and at a tense moment during struggles with the Ottomans, the Turks used cannons to flush... 

 leics Says:  ....obviously.You won't be alone.Read my El Jem page to help yourself deal with the other visitors. Crowded or not, this site is an unmissable 'must-see'......quite apart from its historical value and significance, you can rest happy in knowing you have trod where Russell... 

 euzkadi Says:  The Amphitheatre was probably built in 238 ad under the proconsul Gordien (later proclaimed emperor in this city and then dethroned by Maximus), and used for gladiatorial fights and other shows as executions and animal huntings. It´s a huge building 138 metres long, 114... 

 euzkadi Says:  The best conserved part of the Amphithetare is the southern part of the building, you can visit the third stories of the construction and enjoy the great views of the arena and the reconstructed seating tiers. 

 euzkadi Says:  The best conserved part of the buiding is the facade, although is not so highly decorated as other amphitheatres much of the decoration survived the destruction, and it´s specially beautiful during the sunset, when the stones get that special golden color. 

 euzkadi Says:  Until the 17th century the Amphitheatre remained whole, but then then their stones were used to built the village of El Jem and other stones were transported (as the stones of other roman ruins ) to built the Great Mosque of Kairouan. In the 1990´s the buiding was restored. 

 MikeAtSea Says:  In the gallery surrounding the courtyard are exhibited mosaics and fragmentary sculptures and inscriptions. The most remarkable among the mosaics are those with geometric plant motifs, which attained their finest expression in this region in the late second and early third... 

 JLBG Says:  At first, I wondered what this man, sit on an empty sack was busy doing! On the second photo, I have made a close-up (you need anyway to enlarge it) that allows to see that he has a hand saw for fresh wood that he uses to fix a handle on a pickaxe. He has almost finished... 

 MikeAtSea Says:  Some of the ruins and antiquities one can visit are over 2000 years old and are not in the best of conditions anymore, since neither Phoenicians nor Romans can come back to fix them anymore. Hence it is a silly idea to climb onto the ruins and destroy them for others to see,... 

 MikeAtSea Says:  All ancient sites, mosques, museums and antiquities charge a photographic fee. The ticket for this has to be purchased when one buys the entrance ticket. For each camera a separate fee has to be paid. During my visit the fee was 1 Dinar.