Zaghouan Things to Do

Used to provide water to the roman city of Carthage it was built in only 11years under Emperor Hadrian’s government. The water temple (well its really a big fountain) was the first part of this system. The source came from the temple’s cell, the water arrived to the bassin where it was filtered and then went to the 132km long acqueduct until the Antonin Baths in Carthage. The best remains of the acqueduct are found near Oudna, on the road Zaghouan-Tunis.

This roman monument will be the one to welcome you to Zaghouan. Its the first thing you will see as soon as you get out of the louage. It was built during the second century AD and formed part of the roman city of Ziaua. You still can see a bull’s head in the central part.

Not far from the octogonal minaret its easy to recognise in the Zaghouan’s skyline too. After the independence the old french church was desanctified and the tower transformed into a typical minaret. Nowadays its used as a school

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A Zawouia is a kind of chapel where a saint is venerated. Sidi Ali Azouz was the saint patron of Tunis and its said he is buried here. The interior can be visited by anyone. The entry is free but you should know that the caretaker lives from the visitors’s tips so he will expect some dinars from you. The walls are nice decorated and the building is finished with a beautiful green dome. I don’t have pics of the main room because when I was there some men were singing something like a prayer so I did not want to disturb them. I took a pic of the beautiful corridor.

Twenty minutes walk from the main street and surrounded by a beautiful scenery there is this roman monument called the water temple (temple des eaux). It’s the first monument of the big water system destinated to supply the roman city of Carthage in general and specifically its Antonin Baths. It was built during the IIth century aD and the galleries have 12 niches destinated to put the life size statues of the 12 months. In the middle there is the cella, the most sacred part of the temple, typical example of the african style architecture of that time. Inside there was the source that represented the first step of this water system and it was permanently surveyed by the statue of God Neptune. Its location is very impressive. Its believed that local people did some rituals dedicated to the water here.

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Zaghouan does not serve water to Carthage any more but their public fountains still work and they are very helpful for locals and for tourists like me during hot days. They are very colorful, decorated with ceramic tiles in andalusian style and their water is so fresh and good… directly from the mountains!

With an unusual shape of an “8” it was used to filter the water before going to the aqueduct. Full of water, like ancient times, it must very beautiful

It belongs to one of the mosques of the village (Er-Rhama Mosque) and its easy to recognise because of its shape. It was built according to ottoman patterns, having 8 sides