Archive for Tunisia

Leaving Tunisia

September 19, 2008 at 11:21 pm · Filed under Morocco, Tunisia

This post is about our final days in Tunisia and our trip onward to Istanbul, with some extraneous Carthaginian history thrown in.

Our time in Tunisia was short, but sweet. We had intended mostly to spend our three days on the beach, decompressing from Morocco, and letting the kids have some purely kid time. The beaches were beautiful from a distance, but were deserted and very dirty and neglected when we saw them up close. Apparently the “tourist beach” was about 6km away from us, in La Marsa, but we didn’t make it down there.

So we changed plans and spent a lot of time exploring the ruins of ancient Carthage, walking the streets, and catching up on school work.

The Tunisian government has done a great job in preserving and presenting the ruins of Carthage. By wandering the physical ruins, and looking at the drawings of what they believe the structures look like, we got a sense of what the city might have looked like as the Romans’ African capital.

The history of Carthage itself is incredibly interesting. It was founded by Queen Dido of Tyre (Lebanon) in about 800 BC, as she fled her murderous younger brother. Apparently, after only seven years, they had created the city, and set about building a great empire.

By the 3rd Century BC, the Carthaginian Empire controlled about half of the circumference of the Mediterranean, Sardinia and Corsica, the Balearic Islands, and a big piece of the Iberian Peninsula. The Carthaginians had the best navy in the world (and a great geographic position for controlling Mediterranean commerce), and had pioneered efficient production methods for shipbuilding.

The rise of the Roman Empire led to the first Punic War, which knocked the Carthaginians back. Led by Hannibal, 70,000 Carthaginian troops took the fight to the Romans in the Second Punic War, invading overland (famously on elephants through the Alps) from 218 BC. They occupied a lot of Italy for 15 years, before being beaten back to Carthage in 203 BC.

By 186BC, at the conclusion of the Third Punic War, Scipio Africanus burned the Carthaginian fleet in the harbor, razed and burned Carthage itself, and enslaved 50,000 of its citizens. This was before the Geneva Convention, I guess. Reading the story of Carthage aloud from my BlackBerry (thanks Wikipedia) , as we stood amidst the ruins, looking out at the harbor where the fleet was actually burned, was an amazing “history comes to life” moment.

The Romans created their African capital in Utica, about 30 miles from Carthage, at the mouth of Majardah River. Top-soil unfriendly farming practices in the mountains caused the river and the harbor to become choked with silt, and the Romans moved the capital back to Carthage. It may be a stretch to call it an historical coincidence, but Carthage, Tennessee (ancestral home of the Al Gore family) owes its recent prominence to another man-made environmental disaster of global warming.

The Romans rebuilt Carthage into the second-largest city in the western empire, with about 500,000 residents by the 2nd century AD. African agriculture and trade were acore part of the empire’s strength. Most of the ruins and mosaics that we saw are from this period. Finally, after Vandals and Goths had ended the Roman empire, Islamic invaders captured and (once again) destroyed Carthage in 698 AD.

Aside from the history, we had a relaxing time at the Dar Said pool, reading in the gardens, and walking in the streets of Sidi Bou Said and Carthage. I wish we had gone into Tunis proper, but we ran out of time.

Yesterday morning we packed up again, took a taxi to the airport, and flew to Istanbul. Zola was delighted that we got upgraded to business class.

The plane was absolutely packed with about 250 silent, elderly people in long white robes trimmed with yellow. The strangeness of this was reinforced by the expressions of other Tunisian and Turkish passengers who were not with this group, as they came into the departure lounge in Tunis. To a person, they went to the desk and asked, “Is this really the flight to Istanbul?” Eventually we figured out that this was a group of Algerian pilgrims, en route to Mecca. Apparently they had to change planes in Istanbul for Jeddah.

We arrived in Istanbul at rush hour on a Friday during Ramadan, and the traffic was horrendous. It took nearly two hours to get to our hotel from the airport.

Now, however, we are seated on our balcony, looking out at the ships on the Bosphorous, and at Asia only about a mile away. We are off to explore Istanbul.

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In Tunisia

September 17, 2008 at 3:13 am · Filed under Sidi bou Said, Tunisia

This short post is about our first day in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia.

I am embarrassed at how little I knew about Tunisia. We had planned this as a very quick stop between Morocco and Turkey, and I hadn’t focused on any of the facts about the country, about where we are staying, or anything. I knew that Tunisia is a small country, wedged between Algeria and Libya, with a lot of Mediterranean coast line. I also knew that my former employer has a medium-sized manufacturing facility in a south coast town called Sfax. Aside from this, embarrassingly little.

Based on what we have read in the last two days, and based on our initial impressions, Tunisia is an inspiring success story. On a per-capita GDP basis, Tunisians are 2-3x better off than Moroccans. Tunisia ranks near the top for all African countries on the indices for human development, for competitiveness, and for quality of life. The infrastructure we have seen (roads, railways, airport, telecommunications) are all very good. Although Tunisia does not have a lot of natural resources, the agricultural, manufacturing and tourism sectors are strong.


Again, based on what little we have seen, the weather and the scenery are also very beautiful. The town where we are staying, Sidi Bou Said, looks out over beaches and mountains, and over the pale blue of the Mediterranean. The soft light has inspired generations of painters.

Tunisia is stable, safe, and well organized. This raises a question about politics and civil society. Since gaining independence from France in 1956, Tunisia has had exactly two leaders: the current president has been in office since 1987. It is probably best described as “democracy within boundaries.” The prime minister and cabinet, and the bicameral parliament, have considerable power and autonomy, but the president makes the important dcisions.

By all accounts, both presidents have ruled for the benefit of the people, and have done an outstanding job of promoting development, and building the nation. It isn’t clear to what extent (if at all) that personal freedoms have been subjugated to accomplish these objectives.

We are going off to explore Carthage this morning, and to look around Tunis as well. It is wonderful to be in Tunisia, and we look forward to learning more in our short time here.

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Au revoir, Morocco

September 15, 2008 at 10:04 pm · Filed under Marrakech, Morocco, Tunisia

This short post is about our last night in Marrakech, and our trip onward to Tunisia.

Last night we had a simple final dinner in the ‘Magic Carpet Room’ on the roof of Riad Anayela.

The ‘room’ is actually a 10×20 foot enclosure of knee-height concrete, filled with red cushions and pillows. Dark red curtains hang and billow from a pipe frame, creating movable fabric walls and ceiling. The space is open to the sky, and open to the night air and to the sounds of Marrakech. It is the highest non-minaret structure for several hundred yards in all directions.

The only reason for this long description of the Magic Carpet Room is that while we were in Marrakech, we spent a huge number of our evening hours alone up there as a family. It will be our abiding memory of our time in the city.

Last night we listened to the final call to prayer from the mosques all around us, watched the full moon rise, and ate our french fries and kebabs. The streets were alive with sounds of families breaking the fast, especially festive because it was the mid-point of the Ramadan month.

After dinner, Zola persuaded the night staff, Badr and Sandra, to join him in playing the drums. We were the only guests in the Riad, so we all sat in the open lounge above the courtyard, and made a tremendous racket.

Before bedtime, we tromped back to the roof, en famille, to “say goodnight to the moon.” Of course, we all fell asleep, and had to stumble back downstairs to our room much later.

Just before the first call to prayer this morning, at 4am, we gathered our bags, and walked through the deserted streets of the medina. Riad Anayela’s indispensable man, Mehdi, met us with the hotel’s Land Cruiser, and drove us to the airport for our 6:15am flight.

We have a short hop to Casablanca, then a connection to Tunis, Tunisia. By early afternoon, we hope to be on the beach in the small village of Sidi Bou Said.

Au revoir, Morocco.

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