El Jem

El Jem was no doubt a thriving Roman agricultural region producing both olive oil and wheat and the grandiose colosseum, second only in size to that of Rome itself, attests to its wealth. Arriving at this small city from Sousse or Sfax, the sight of this amphitheater rising in the distance like a Colossus is both wondrous and slightly strange as the present surroundings give no hint of its former importance.

Built around the year 200, it was the scene of those games and circuses, often cruel and bloody , provided by ancient Rome. Today, the cries of martyrs and beasts have been replaced by the haunting strains of a concerto or the precise beauty of a fugue as world famous orchestras and artists perform at the classical music festival held at the colosseum each summer.

El Jem has opened workshops where artists are re-discovering the art of mosaics and their creations are truly worthy of this site and its history. You can compare these artworks with those in the museum by the colosseum.

Originally planned to house a large collection of mosaics discovered in 1960 and 1961, the El Jem Museum was completed and opened to the public in 1970, bringing to an end the extensive dispersion of the archeological remains from Thysdrus, that had until then been divided among the Bardo, Sousse and Sfax museums. Inspired by the design of a Roman house, the museum includes three large exhibition rooms and a reception area, surrounding a central courtyard with a garden and peristyle. It soon proved too small for the inexhaustible treasures of Roman Thysdrus, El Jem's illustrious predecessor, and one of the richest and most powerful cities of Roman Africa. The monuments of Thysdrus were among the finest in the empire, including one of the world's most majestic amphitheaters, a circus as large as that of Maxentius in Rome, and aristocratic dwellings luxuriously decorated with mosaics.

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 centuries. The visitor's attention is also captured by a peacock fanning its tail and by many other figurative motifs. The site was entirely devoid of water, and two inscriptions celebrate the structures built to bring water to the ancient city. Terra cotta tiles of the Paleo-Christian era give an idea of the traditional work produced in the region.

The three large exhibition rooms contain showcases exhibiting many types of items: sculptures (Jupiter wearing a diadem, a trunk of Mercury, a Medusa's head, a lion's head, a young girl's head, a marble hand, a fragment of a face with the hair design bored into the stone); glassware (cups, goblets, bottles, tear-bottles, perfume vials); clear sigillate ceramics (vases, plates, etc.); terra cotta statuettes (numerous figurines of Venus, Eros and Psyche, a dog-shaped vase); many Roman and Paleo-Christian terra cotta lamps; coins; metal objects (a frying pan, a bronze mirror, handles, etc.). In these same rooms are also exhibited some marble statues, including one of Isis.

The principal treasure of the El Jem Museum is, however, its impressive collection of mosaics. Geometric motifs, flowers and figurative scenes stand out by their enormous diversity and by the skill with which they were executed: Orpheus charming the animals with his music; the triumph of Bacchus; the nine Muses; drunken Silenus; the spirit of the year; the four seasons; Dionysus as a child riding a tigress; wild animal fights - all are among the finest mosaics ever discovered in Tunisia, a they provide an excellent overview of the work of the School of Byzacenus (the southern half of the country).

The museum is currently being extended to accommodate the many mosaics that have been discovered more recently, as well as a large number of quite unique objects produced by the craftsmen of Thysdrus during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.