El Jem Amphitheater

The third-largest Roman amphitheater in the world, rivaling the Colosseum. Rising from the Tunisian plains, this UNESCO site could seat 35,000. Wine was served at gladiatorial games.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Stand Where 50,000 People Made an Emperor History · Price: low

   In 238 AD, an 80-year-old senator named Gordian stood inside this city after 50,000 residents rioted, killed Rome's tax collector, and forced the purple onto the only man they thought could save them. He didn't want it. He accepted anyway. Three weeks later he was dead and the building he started was never finished.

   Where: Main entrance to the Amphitheatre of El Jem (Thysdrus), on the central street through town. GPS: 35.2967, 10.7078. The structure is visible from the train station — a 7-minute walk straight ahead.

   What: In early 238 AD, Emperor Maximinus Thrax's procurator was running an extortion operation in Thysdrus — falsifying charges against local landowners, seizing property. A riot of 50,000 residents killed him. Now they needed an emperor or they'd all be executed for treason. The only senator available was Gordian — about 80 years old, a former provincial governor. He literally protested that he was 'too old.' They forced the purple on him anyway on March 22, 238 AD. He declared himself emperor of Rome. His son Gordian II immediately led an untrained militia army to fight the forces loyal to Maximinus. The son died at the Battle of Carthage after exactly 22 days — the shortest reign of any Roman emperor ever. The father hanged himself the same day. This amphitheater, which Gordian had commissioned as a monument to his home city, was never finished. You can see the incomplete upper galleries from the inside — construction simply stopped. The building records the exact moment a city's ambitions collided with imperial politics.

   How: Combo ticket (12 dinars / ~€3.60) covers both the amphitheater and the museum 850m away. Card payments accepted. Hours: summer (May 1–Sept 15) 08:00–18:30, winter 08:00–17:30. Walk through the main gate, across the arena floor, and stop in the center. The floor you're standing on is where the gladiatorial contests happened. Look up at the three complete arcade levels — then find the unfinished fourth. That is where the money ran out and the emperor ran out of time.

   Backup: If the main gate has a queue, enter via the secondary corridor and reach the arena floor from the tunnel entrance on the east side. The arena floor is always accessible during opening hours.

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2. 2 Descend into the Tunnels Where the Lions Waited Adventure · Price: low

   Beneath the arena floor, a network of stone galleries 3.9 meters underground once held lions, leopards, and ostriches in iron cages. Winches turned. Trap doors opened. The animals appeared from below, directly in front of the gladiators who had no idea from which direction the next cage would rise. You can walk the same tunnels and look up through those same openings.

   Where: The hypogeum entrance is accessible from the arena floor — descend through one of the stone stairways cut into the arena perimeter. You'll see the tunnel openings marked inside the amphitheater. GPS is same as main entrance: 35.2967, 10.7078.

   What: The hypogeum consists of two intersecting underground stone galleries, 3.9 meters deep, running beneath the entire arena. This is where the wild animals — lions, leopards, ostriches — were kept in cages before their appearance. Gladiators waited in adjacent cells. The mechanism: iron winches turned by hand would raise the heavy animal cages upward through trap doors cut into the wooden arena floor. The animal appeared from below the sand. The 'central opening' — a large rectangular hole in the arena floor you walked over in Step 1 — was how air and light reached the hypogeum when animals weren't being raised. Look up from inside the tunnels: you're looking through the same openings the animals looked through before the doors opened.

   How: Access included with the 12-dinar combo ticket. Bring any light source (phone flashlight) — sections of the tunnel can be dim. The galleries are approximately 150m total combined length. Give yourself 20 minutes to walk both arms of the cross-shaped tunnel and find the central trap-door mechanism area. The best moment: stand at the base of a trap-door shaft and look up at the arena floor above — the exact perspective of a caged lion waiting for the winch to turn.

   Backup: If the main tunnel entrance is blocked by a guided group, wait 10 minutes — groups move through in 15–20 minute intervals. The second tunnel entrance on the opposite side of the hypogeum cross is usually less crowded.

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3. 3 Count the People Who No Longer Exist From the Top Tier Adventure · Free

   The Colosseum of Africa sits in a town of 21,500 people. It was built to seat 35,000. The math is not a coincidence — it is the entire story of this place. Climb to the highest accessible gallery, look out over the flat Tunisian plains, and calculate how many people have simply... ceased to exist since this building went up.

   Where: The stairways to the upper tiers are located inside the amphitheater, accessible from the main arena level. The structure rises to approximately 36 meters — three complete levels of arcaded galleries plus the partial fourth. The highest accessible area offers views in all directions.

   What: At its Roman peak, Thysdrus had ~40,000 residents. This amphitheater could seat 35,000 — meaning nearly the entire population could watch games simultaneously. Today, El Jem has 21,500 people. The arena could seat 63% more people than live here now. The scale contrast is visible from the ground — the massive Roman oval dwarfs every building in town — but it only truly hits from the top. From the upper galleries, the flat Tunisian plains stretch to the horizon in every direction, broken only by the silver-green of olive groves (the same crop that funded the whole enterprise in 238 AD). Scan the upper structure: you'll find the zone where construction stopped. The completed arches give way to rough stonework and unfinished courses — the exact boundary where Gordian I's ambitions ended when his son died at Carthage. This boundary is not marked on any sign. You have to find it yourself.

   How: The stairways are included with the 12-dinar ticket (no extra charge — free once inside). Stairs are steep and uneven; the kind of ancient stonework that requires attention underfoot. Allow 15 minutes to reach the top tier and orient yourself. Best time: late afternoon, when the light hits the limestone facade from the west and the shadows in the arches deepen. In July–August, the International Symphony Music Festival (since 1986) fills these arches with candlelight and international orchestras on summer nights — check tunisiatours.org for dates if your timing overlaps.

   Backup: If vertigo or steep stairs are a concern, the second level already gives an excellent panorama of the arena and sufficient elevation to grasp the scale. Most of the sightlines are available from level two.

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4. 4 Find the Wine Poured Before the Killing Started Wine · Price: low

   Eighty meters down the road, in a room built over a Roman villa's actual floor, a mosaic from this city shows exactly what happened the night before the animal hunts in the arena above you. Gladiators at a table. A slave pouring wine. Some of those men are already asleep — the inscription explains they're sleeping off the feast before they go into the arena in the morning.

   Where: El Jem Archaeological Museum, 850m from the amphitheater — follow the signs south from the main entrance, or ask any local 'musée?' The address is 5160 El Jem. GPS approximately: 35.2940, 10.7050.

   What: The museum contains the gladiatorial banquet mosaic from Thysdrus, dated 220-250 AD — meaning this floor was being laid while the amphitheater above was still being built. The mosaic shows the venatores (animal hunters) at their final banquet. A slave hands wine to the celebrants. Several men are already sleeping — the mosaic inscription identifies them as sleeping off the night before their morning performance in the arena. This is the last documented wine service connected to gladiatorial entertainment in this specific building. The museum also houses the remains of Villa Sollertiana — a Roman patrician's house whose mosaic floors are still in their original positions, in situ on the ground where Roman craftsmen laid them in the 2nd-3rd century. The Medusa mosaic, with its distinctive spade-shaped scale pattern, is among the finest geometric mosaics from Roman Africa. This is the layer-3 reason to be in El Jem.

   How: Your 12-dinar combo ticket covers admission to BOTH the amphitheater and this museum — no additional payment needed. Same hours as the amphitheater. Allow 45 minutes minimum, 90 minutes if you want to give the Villa Sollertiana proper attention. The museum is small enough to orient quickly — head for the room with the in-situ villa mosaics first (ground level, rear section). The gladiatorial banquet mosaic is typically in the main mosaic hall. Ask at the desk 'la mosaïque des gladiateurs?' if you can't locate it immediately.

   Backup: If the museum is unexpectedly closed (rare, but Ramadan hours vary), the amphitheater gift shop has postcard reproductions of the key mosaics. The gladiatorial banquet scene is documented in the Tunisia Heritage patrimoine site online if you want the full scholarly detail.

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5. 5 Locate the Door Kahina Walked Out Of History · Free

   In 703 AD — 465 years after Gordian built this place — a Berber warrior-queen named Dihya made this Roman ruin her last fortress. She had already defeated the Arab army once. When she finally walked out of this amphitheater for her last battle, she walked with her hair loose. That detail survived 1,300 years in Arab chronicles. The door she left through is still there.

   Where: The main exterior of the amphitheater — any of the surviving entrance archways on the ground level. GPS: 35.2967, 10.7078. This step is entirely free and happens before or after purchasing tickets — no entry required.

   What: Dihya, called al-Kahina by the Arab forces she fought, was a Berber tribal leader from the Aurès Mountains who united the Berber peoples against the Umayyad conquest of North Africa. She had already defeated the Arab general Hassan ibn al-Nu'man at the Battle of Meskiana — a victory that made her, briefly, the uncontested ruler of all the Maghreb. She retreated to this amphitheater and used its thick Roman walls as a fortress. In Ramadan 703, she finally emerged — sources say she came out with her hair loose, a ritual act of defiance or ceremonial significance — and fought her last battle. She fled. Hassan pursued her into the Aurès Mountains. He caught and killed her near a well that still bears her name in Arabic: Bir al-Kahina. Her religion is still debated: Arab chronicles call her Jewish; most historians think she was Christian; others argue she followed indigenous Berber religion. She remains a living cultural figure — claimed as a feminist icon and Amazigh identity symbol across Algeria and Tunisia today. The archways she used as her fortress walls show the marks of 1,800 years of use — Roman quarrying, Byzantine repair, Arab siege, Ottoman patching. Run your hand along the stonework at any entrance arch and you are touching all of it simultaneously.

   How: Completely free — the exterior is public space. Stand at any entrance archway on the ground floor. The stone blocks are original Roman — no mortar, no foundations, just stacked limestone cut from local quarries, held together by precise engineering and 1,800 years of inertia. The best archway view: north-facing elevation, where the full three-story facade is intact and the sense of scale is greatest. Morning light is best for the stone color.

   Backup: The story of Kahina is told (briefly) in the amphitheater's interior signage — though the exterior experience of the walls themselves is richer. For deeper context, search 'Kahina World History Encyclopedia' on your phone before arriving.

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