It is said that after the Trojan War, the Greek hero Ulysses and his crew drifted in the Mediterranean Sea. After seeing the white Tunisia hidden in the shade of date palm, palm and olive trees, they decided to take root and multiply here, and the white Tunisia was also dyed with colorful colors.
From the perspective of the history or time of civilization, Tunisia is a door to the long history of Carthage. Therefore, some people said, “If you go to Tunisia, you will go to Carthage.”
Carthage was founded in 750 BC. Around the 6th century BC, Carthage became stronger and expanded from the desert in North Africa to the rich Mediterranean region. In the 3rd century BC, Carthage and Rome, a powerful country on the north coast of the Mediterranean, began to conflict. The two sides began three protracted Punic wars, and finally Carthage was captured by the Romans. In 146 BC, the prosperous Carthage was burned to ashes by a fire that burned for 10 days. Later, the Romans built a new Carthage city on the ruins. In the 7th century, the Arabs came from an expedition and Carthage was destroyed again. Since then, the pearl on the crown of the ancient Mediterranean Queen has lost its former glamour.
Today, the ruins of the ancient city of Carthage are not far from Tunis. Although there are only ruins left here, the bustling charm of the past is indistinguishable. Scattered traces of historic sites, thick stone wall bases, broken granite columns, and capitals carved with various decorative patterns such as flower baskets, rolled leaves, lotus flowers, palm leaves, etc., show the grandeur and splendor of the ancient city architecture, and also exude a kind of decaying beauty.
What we saw at the ancient city of Carthage is not the noon of the once prosperous Carthaginian Empire, but the dusk of a decaying Carthaginian people… Now the capital of Tunisia, Tunis, is developing vigorously. Overlooking Tunis from the sky, the blue Mediterranean, the city shaded by trees and the dotted white mosque roof form a beautiful natural picture. Like many ancient cities, Tunisia is divided into old cities and new cities. The old city still maintains the mysterious Arab oriental color. The Arab women in robes and veils, the melodious Arab music floating over Medina. The new city has rows of high-rise buildings, wide and clean boulevards, fresh and bright coffee shops, shopping malls and restaurants, which make the city colorful. Walking in the downtown area, the rich Mediterranean flavor rushed towards you, and the melodious music overflowed from the coffee shop.
Tunisia has an impressive Bacedo museum. The museum displays the most outstanding and perfect ancient Roman mosaic in the world. The mosaic collages made people sigh at the greatness and magic of ancient art. Another landmark building in Tunisia is the El Jem Colosseum, which is one of the most splendid buildings left by the ancient Roman Empire in Africa. The Colosseum is wide and tall, connected by arcades. During the walk, it was as if walking through the corridor of the ancient castle. I was dazed to see the brutal scene of people fighting with people, people fighting with animals, and seemed to hear the heartbreaking and desperate screams of the losers and the wounded, as well as the deafening cheers and curses that broke out on the stand
Sitting on the open-air coffee seat overlooking the sea, drinking the mint tea that Tunisians like best, and tasting the strong and sweet taste, is really wonderful. Sometimes, the meaning of travel is not only the photos left in the camera for commemoration, but also the things that cannot be loaded by the camera and cannot be expressed by words, such as the blue sea and blue sky here. The sky here is too blue to compare with the sea in other places – the blue sky and sea in Scandinavia may be more pure, but the color is too light; The blue sky and sea in the Indian Ocean outside Phuket are too warm. This is the blue that can only be felt at the Carthage site. It is the blue sky and sea in the Mediterranean, and it is the blue produced in the oldest confrontation between the sea and the desert.