Bookworm on Tunisia — A nice place to visit but please turn down the heat.

I had no expectations whatsoever about Tunisia. Going into it, I knew only three things:  it’s on the northeastern tip of Africa, very near Sicily; ancient Carthage was where Tunisia now is; and it had a revolution in January 2011 that lit the spark for the Arab Spring. I now know somewhat more about this North African nation.

Tunisia’s location is important to its identity. Our guide was at great pains to assure us that Tunisia is a forward-looking country, with strong European ties. Although Tunisia has its own Arabic dialect, and the schools teach classic Arabic, all students start learning French in elementary school and English in high school.

By all students, the guide emphasized, he meant ALL.  School is mandatory for all Tunisian students, boys and girls, between the ages of 6 and 16. Schools are coeducational.  

Speaking of girls, women have full legal rights in Tunisia. They can hold the same jobs (we saw a lot of female police officers), get equal pay for equal work, and divorce their husbands. Polygamy is illegal. Unsurprisingly, despite a Muslim majority, church and state are separate, and both Christians and Jews are allowed to worship freely.

It’s this secularism, I think, that explains the civility of Tunisia’s revolution. As best as I can tell, once the Tunisians got rid of the enormously corrupt ruling family (which secreted at least 25 billion dollars in offshore accounts), the Tunisian people had accomplished their goal. Right now, they’re awaiting October 23, when they have free elections. It might be a bit confusing, though, as they have 102 parties running!

Today, a mere half year after the revolution, Tunis seemed peaceful — indeed, somnolent, although that last impression may have come to me because of the punishing heat, which hovered around 110 degrees. The whole place is bleached white by the sun. The sky is white; the myriad low, boxy buildings are white; and even the dirt and dust are a pale tan.

The people we saw were friendly, pushy in a very Middle Eastern suk way, and desperate for their life’s blood– tourism. Because of the revolution, their tourist trade has collapsed, and many of them asked us to put out the word that Tunisia is a safe place for the return of tourism. Certainly, under the aegis of a rather stodgy cruise ship tour, we felt very safe indeed.

So, what did we see?  We started in Carthage, which is now a rich suburb right outside Tunis (the presidential palace, which looks like a prison on the outside, is in Carthage). Ancient Carthage itself is long gone. After the third Punic War, in 146 B.C. the Romans destroyed every building and sowed the ground with salt. The ancient Phoenician culture, which dated back to the 9th century, was definitively destroyed.

The Romans, however, eventually realized what the Phoenicians had already figured out, which is that Carthage has a great location. It sits on a major waterway, and has a superb climate for grains and olives. Once they scouted out water that could be routed to the city via aqueducts, the Romans built Carthage up to become one of the major Roman cities. It is that Roman city that is still scattered about amongst the modern Tunisian villas.  We wandered about the remains of the Roman baths, and were much impressed by the gigantic scale of these ruins.

From Roman times, we moved to the modern Middle East, checking out the ancient market place, or Medina. This felt like any suk, mirroring the more or less continuous Arab or Turkish occupation in Tunisia from the 8th century onward. It was a very clean suk, and a very empty one, both because of the heat of the day and the dearth of tourists.

Our next stop was the best one:  a museum that houses the biggest collection of Roman mosaics I’ve ever seen. In room after overheated room, every surface was covered with these vibrant mosaics. I wish we could have stayed longer, but the guide had his own schedule.

Our last stop was a suburb, the name of which I’ve completely forgotten now, which was distinguished by old white buildings, all with blue trim. It was kind of like a Muslim Santorini, and that’s about all I can say.

To advertise my wussiness, it was a relief to get back to the cool cruise ship, after 8 hours of hot ambient air and even hotter tour buses.