The Bardo Museum, Tunis and her Medina

The Bardo is an impressive museum, it has one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world as well as artifacts from ancient Carthage (the Phoenican state of the area during the 7th - 3rd centuries BC) The museum collection is from the Libyco-punic (814 - 146 BC), Islamic (534 - 705 BC), Hellenistic (323 - 31 BC) and Roman eras (149 -146 BC) and was first opened on the 7th May 1888

The magnitude and magnificence of the mosaics are staggering

Glass Carafe's from late 4th - early 5th and 11th centuries

Stucco tile representing a jumper archer (forth century Hegira / tenth century AD)

Green and yellow Pitchers from the 5th and 11th centuries

The Museum is housed in an old Beylic Palace and was called Alaoui Museum after the reigning Bey (Monarch) of the time. Tunisia was a French colonial protectorate from 1881 and she achieved independence by 1956. The museum was renamed Bardo after independence

One of the Apartments of the Bey, called Virgil, after the name of the mosaic of Sousse

The detail is as delicate as lace

Head of the Ocean God - Second century AD

Roman epoch sculptures in the Carthage Hall

The ceilings are ornamented in stucco or hand finished in gold leaf

The small palace was added around 1899 to house the Islamic art collections

Wooden ceilings of the Baroque-styled reception hall

What an amazing few hours! I made a fool of myself with my jaw continuously dropping

And on to Tunis City...

The end of the La Marsa line to Tunis and quite a surprise awaits you as you exit the train station. Fresh flower markets line both sides of the street, what a floral banquet!

Tunis's Big Ben

Restaurants and cafes line both sides of the Boulevard, each with a waiter or 2 peddling its wares

And so we partook, Chocolate Crepes and Cafe Creme local

Metro leger de Tunis linking the city to the suburbs

The Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul is the only operating Catholic cathedral in the country

The Medina was founded in 698 and is built around the Al-Zaytuna Mosque. It contains 700 monuments, has 110,000 inhabitants and is spread over 680 acres. It became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979

Bab el Bhar (the sea gate) which marks the separation between the Medina of Tunis and the European City

The entrance to the Medina, the Souk or Market begins, and organized chaos reins with each owner trying to entice you into their shop

Handmade shoes are just one of an array of goods for sale in the Souk

The senses are overwhelmed, so much to take in... and John is ready to run for the hills!

I've come for the doors, the alleyways, the architecture...the crowds are part and parcel of the experience

A table, a couple of chairs and you have a cafe. The Tunisian's love their coffee and cigarettes. We head down a side street and leave the crowds behind

Al-Zaytuna is the 2nd oldest Mosque in Africa. Founded in 689AD it shows the history of ten centuries of architecture, from the 9th to the 19th century. It has pre-Islamic art like Roman scriptures and Christian art in addition to Islamic art showing an artistic continuity that can be seen in the stones. Unfortunately it is closed for the duration of our excursion

Amazing how plants survive and thrive in these meandering streets. The more a building is set back from the shops, the more it is valued

A printing press shop hidden behind a half-closed door

This door is professed to be 600 years old. The detail is artistry at its best

An Islamic school, now a museum

The well in the center of the courtyard is so deep you can barely make out the water at the bottom

An entrance to a restaurant, yellow door leading to another yellow door and yet another

A merchant crafting detail onto metal plates

A shop in an old palace, the Ed Dar is part museum, part emporium, this ancient multi-story carpet store is filled with goods, but don't be too distracted, upstairs is where the beauty lies

Roof terraces were (and still are) important social spaces, decorated with arches and adorned with earthen tiles, offering spectacular views over the Medina and City

Al-Zaytuna Mosque minaret

A king's bed chamber, big enough for 4 wives... pass through though and

into the next room where you'll find the most exquisite carpets, ranging from Zarbeeya, hand-knotted wool carpets, Mergoum, embroidered flat woven carpets, Kilims, embroidered carpets with berber motifs and Berber, thick-pile wool carpets. Most are hand made in homes, filled with culture and history. The order of the day is to bargain and it can become quite pressurized whether or not you're in the mood to make a purchase

Tunisian essential oils industry is based around production of bitter orange flower and wild harvested rosemary and myrtle. Distilling the flowers of the bitter orange tree yields neroli oil, and the water used from distilling gives orange flower water. Other crop types are Lavender, coriander, jasmine, rose and geranium. Souk des parfumiers distills and sells a range of essential oils

Tourbet dl Bey is a Tunisian royal mausoleum and is the last resting place of most of the Husainid dynasty rulers. It was constructed in the reign of Ali ibn Hussein (1759-1782) and is the largest funerary monument in Tunis. The building itself is not very impressive but the corners have lovely details

The Medina's maze-like warren of streets and alleyways are a sight to behold, of getting lost and being transported to bygone days, to admire the architecture, to absorb the smells, to catch a glimpse of how life has evolved, seemingly slowly. What an experience!

Finding our way out of the old city into more chaos with market day

If the streets are too busy...

New York or LA, Paris, London or Tunis?

Some girl time, shopping for fabric in a rainy Tunis (my last outing before coming home), choosing a restaurant and deciding on what to eat is interesting. Is that Camel meat? But we are reassured ours is chicken, and delicious too, a sort of pizza envelope

Tunis is a vibrant city full of surprises, some of which can be human. The people are extremely friendly and helpful and if you make eye contact and greet someone of a particular gender, be prepared to have a companion until you reach your destination, and have spare Dinars to hand out a 'thank you for being friendly and helpful' tip. I learned, on occasion to be 'anonyme', with a slight shake of the head or a polite hand gesture

Bargaining for a purchase is a way of life and no is not an acceptable word in any language here. The price comes down rapidly as you walk away

Next time... ancient Carthage and a charming, blue and white hill-side village