Tunisia - Makthar, a restless night and a Numidian city full of Roman remains

Actually, we have an iron rule: never look for a pitch after dark. For good reason.
It is tedious. You don't have an overview. You can't see what's on the floor. (Shards, nails or whatever could hurt our delicate Felix).

Only today we somehow didn't make it. Google Maps sends us into "Gjät", we get stuck in the narrowest of dead ends, where waving women in colourful dresses tell us that we can't go any further. Just turning around becomes an adventure, for us and also for the spectators, who in the end simply don't understand why you have to drive such a big thing here of all places.

The pitch app shows no pitches at all here or in the region, nobody really gets lost here. Except for us.

So change of plan: we look for the "Forum Romanum" and the historical excavation site we came here for, and want to spend the night in the excavation site car park. Only: we just can't find the thing. It is slowly getting dark and we are getting a little restless.

Hoping that we won't be evicted at night because there is a market the next day, I eventually see an empty place. We settle in, cook something and there's already a honk at the door: flashing blue lights, horns and police. Ahh, no, not now, please don't send them away, I still think.

Gerd gets out, has a nice chat with the policemen, who again just want to know from where, where to, how long and then the usual: "Bienvenue en Tunisie". Whatever, they are looking out for us! The whole thing is repeated again an hour later, different policemen, we are probably the only tourists staying here.

The "empty" place turns out to be a dog run. Unfortunately, they don't let us sleep well. And in the morning we seem to be standing right on the way to school, the kids just knock on the wall and keep walking. Kind of creepy.

Ah yes, the Roman Forum

In fact, we stand 50 metres from the entrance, buy our tickets (obligatory here: 8 dinars for foreigners, about 2-3 CHF/€) and are - as you would expect - the only visitors. The museum is quickly explored (2 or 3 small rooms with an overloud alarm system) and then we walk onto the grounds. Here too: The excavations are not yet finished, we walk over the historic stones, through large archways and can sit in mosaic-decorated baths (without water). The whole thing is a huge site.

One of the most impressive excavations is the Schola de Juvenes, the meeting place of the male youth of the time, which played an important role in the city. Another highlight is the Forum, a large paved square of 1500 square metres, and the Arc de Triomphe, built under Emperor Trajan.

There are also the large thermal baths with the arcaded Palaestra, an area for physical exercise. With the amphitheatre, a mausoleum, a Christian church and a trough monument, there is much more to discover. The thing about the trough monument, however, was a mystery to us.

The Arch of Trajan, which was later expanded into a fortress in Byzantine times, is fascinating and very special. Once again we wonder how something like this could have been built in the past without excavators, cranes and digital construction drawings.

We are glad that we had such a great morning walk after the sleepless night. Now it's time for a leisurely breakfast.

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

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