Kairouan and Amphitheatre of El Jem

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kairouan

   Kairouan is the fourth holy city of Islam, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, and that makes it unusual in Tunisia, which otherwise has a relaxed Mediterranean air. It was founded in 670 by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi as a military base in the heart of the plains, far from the coast and the Byzantine fleets, and it became the first Islamic capital of the Maghreb. The Great Mosque, also called the Mosque of Uqba, dates from that early period and was rebuilt in the ninth century. It has a huge courtyard surrounded by arcades, a three-storey minaret and a prayer hall with hundreds of columns, many taken from Roman and Byzantine ruins. The old city is a UNESCO site.

   Read the complete Kairouan write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kairouan is where the day begins. Next is Medina of Sousse.

2. 2. Medina of Sousse

   Sousse is a city that has been busy for nearly three thousand years, under the Phoenicians, the Romans and the Arabs, and its old town, the medina, still has the crowded, enclosed feel of a place built behind walls. It stands on the Tunisian coast, in the region called the Sahel, a belt of olive groves and white towns between the sea and the dry interior. Sousse was Hadrumetum in Roman times, and later became an important port, and it was ringed by walls in the ninth century, parts of which still stand.

   Read the complete Medina of Sousse write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Medina of Sousse comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Amphitheatre of El Jem.

3. 3. Amphitheatre of El Jem

   El Jem is a small Tunisian town with a very large building. Rising out of the flat plain of the Sahel, the amphitheatre of Thysdrus, as the Romans called the place, is one of the biggest ever built, a three-tiered oval of pale limestone more than a hundred and thirty metres long, and it was designed to hold some thirty-five thousand spectators. Construction began in the early third century, probably under the rule of the wealthy local landowners who grew rich on olive oil, and it was never fully finished, because the African governor who encouraged it was killed in a revolt in 238.

   Read the complete Amphitheatre of El Jem write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Amphitheatre of El Jem. Next is back through Medina of Sousse.

4. 4. back through Medina of Sousse

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Medina of Sousse write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Medina of Sousse, late in the day. Next is Kairouan.

5. 5. Kairouan

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kairouan write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Kairouan. That is the ride.