On this day, we drove from Tozeur to Kairouan. We crossed the Atlas Mountains and passed dozens of “camel crossing’ signs. We passed phosphate works, a major industry for Tunisia. We saw many new oasis in the making with mostly olive trees and pistachio trees. All the new oasis being created made me wonder where all the water is coming from. I know that the answer is ‘underground’ but how long can their underground water supply last with all the oasis being created?

Our main stop this day was in Sbeitla at the Roman and Byzantine ruins. They were excavated and restored between 1906 and 1921. Sbeitla was originally a military settlement but quickly became wealthy due to its agricultural lands. With a great climate and at a time of more rain, it became the granary of Rome. Also a large number of ancient olive presses were found here.

The first photo is a far view just to give an idea of the scope of this settlement. It was large with an amphitheater and all the normal Roman and Byzantine buildings.

Sbeitla has the best preserved Roman forum temples in Tunisia: the temples of Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno.

Those Romans sure knew how to bathe, although I’m not sure if this tub was a public bath or in the brothel area.

Much of the Roman mosaic floors that we saw had been lifted and preserved on museum walls but at Sbeitla, we saw some large areas that still had the original mosaic floors. This was a very large building and that’s only about half of it.

I also wanted to show some of the more creative mosaic work that we saw. This was in another bath in the ruins. I must say that the Romans seemed to be big on bathes.