A few years ago we started to digitalize photos from travels we did before we joined TravelBlog. If youve seen any them and like them, we have good news. We have some more of up since Ake has written about a trip he made in Tunisia in 2002. If you dont want to look at slightly photos, my is that you stop reading now and try to find something better to do.
I began this trip in Tunis, the capitol of Tunisia. I only stayed there one day because I knew that I would have time to explore Tunis in the end of the trip. This day, other than getting adjusted to the country and learning to find my way around, I mainly spent in the Bardo National Museum.
Bardo National Museum is probably the most important museum in Tunisia. The collections include many artefacts from the Roman era such as statues and mosaics.
Staues from the Roman era are often nude. A few years ago I wrote a blog entry highlighting this fact.
When I walked around in Bardo National Museum I noticed that all statues were more or less damaged. The head could be missing, or one or both arms or maybe just a finger. The damages were different in extent for each statue, with one exception. Every statue was damaged in the crotch. There is no doubt that they have chiselled off the penis from each statue.
After I left Tunis I was eager to travel around in the country. The first place I went to was Gafsa, a large city pretty much in the centre of Tunisia.
In Gafsa there used to be a large and impressive casbah, fortress. It was damaged during WWII and today there are only a few walls left. The walls that are standing are impressive, but still they are only fragments of the casbahs former glory.
Tamerza is an oasis about 100 km west of Gafsa. The water from the oasis is used to irrigate palm trees that supposedly produce some of the best dates in all of Tunisia.
palms has carved out a canyon in the soft rock. When light shines into the narrowest sections of the canyon it magical.
Mids is another oasis in the mountain region in the west of Tunisia. Just like in Tamerza there is a gorge there, a much deeper one.
This gorge has been used as filming location for the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is not the only movie to have been shot in Tunisia. Ill write more about filming locations later on in this blog entry.
Douz is a city in the south centre of Tunisia. Douz is located right on the edge of the Sahara Desert, and that was the main reason why I went there. I wanted to take a tour in the desert.
In the evening when I arrived in Douz I was invited to a Beduin wedding. To me it sounds odd that I, a total stranger, get invited to such a private thing as a wedding. But they explained to me that Beduin wedding parties go on for several days and, at least to some of
After I left Tunis I was eager to travel around in the country. The first place I went to was Gafsa, a large city pretty much in the centre of Tunisia.
On the bus to Douz I met a woman from France who was also a solo traveller. We decided to go on a desert tour together. The tour was by dromedary and went from the outskirts of Douz to a camp in the desert. In the camp we met some other travellers from various countries. When in the evening we all sat around the camp fire someone started to sing the song Frre Jacques. Someone else recognised the song and started to sing along, in there own language. Yet another one started singing, in a third language. After a while we were all singing the same song, but in six or seven different languages.
In the night we slept more or less in the open under several rugs. It was very cold at night, almost down to freezing point, so we were very happy that they provided us with so many rugs.
The desert tour was two half days and one night. When we arrived in Douz I decided to travel on to Matmata.
In Gafsa there used to be a large and impressive casbah, fortress. It was damaged during WWII and today there are only a few walls left.
only about 2000 people live there.
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