TUNISIA - JANUARY 2001

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On the 23th of January we left Belgium for a 7 days visit of TUNESIA.

We stayed in SOUSSE in the hotel MARHABA. The hotel is situated near the sea. It's a big hotel with a good kitchen but there is no elevator. It has 4 floors and we had to do 70 stairs up and 40 stairs down to go to our rooms !!!

SOUSSE (100.000 habitants) is the 6th town of Tunisia. It is a town of industry, trade and fish port. The town is one of the biggest tourism center of the country. It is situated between PORT EL KANTAOUI - in the north - and Monastir - in the south.
The old town is known for the Big Moskee, the RIBAT, the KASBA and the Museum of Mosaics.

In the old town there is also a nice museum called "Musee DAR ESSID". This is a typical tradional house. The house was once a home of a "Sousse official" and is a typical example of a tradional middle class Sousse house. Behind the entrance door you will find a large hallway designed to preserve the privacy of the women living in the house. This hallway opens into a courtyard with walls richly carpeted with tilling. Three bedrooms open onto this courtyard. Each bedroom is layed out like a small, more or less self-contained apartement, with sitting room and alcoves and can accommodate a small family.It is worth climbing the spiral staircase tot the top of the tower, which commands a spectacular view across the rooftops and coustline of Sousse.

During our stay we made a two days trip to the south of Tunisia. We visited EL DJEM, MATMATA, DOUZ, TOZEUR and two montain oases namely CHEBIKA and TAMARZA.

Already 10 km before EL DJEM you can see the Amphitheatre. The roman road go straight to it - symbol of power and architecture. This amphitheatre, the largest of the roman world after this from Rome, was build in the 3th century.

The landscape of MATMATA is realy spectacular. At the end of the zeventies the landscape of Matamata was the scene of the film "Star Wars".
A few steps away of the central square and you are already between the still occupied underground houses. In the houses are still living Berbers. Of course we visited an original house - there was no electricity - but there are several underground houses with television antennas !! The houses are in winter warm and in summer cool.

In DOUZ we made the traditional ride on dromedary.

The second day we went to TOZEUR and we had to cross the CHOTT EL DJERID (a dry salt lake) where we enjoyed the sunrise.
We visited a oases and then we had a ride to CHEBIKA and TAMARZA - two montain oases.

On the road back to Sousse we visited also KAIROUAN.

After a nice holiday we took the plane back to Belgium. We had a nice view on the ALPS.

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