Roamin' Regal Roman Ruins

This afternoon Chris and I and two of his children spent a marvelous two hours wandering through the partially excavated ruins of the ancient Roman city of Bulla Regia. A city since the Berber and Punic periods (500-300 BC), Bulla Regia became a Roman city around 200 BC and was declared a "Free" city by Julius Caesar in 56 BC. Later, Emperor Hadrian granted its residents full Roman citizenship.

The city lay buried until the early 1900's when it was discovered and since then excavations have occurred sporadically based on available government funding.  Today, the majority of the city still remains buried under centuries of sand and dirt but those buildings, homes, roads, and amphitheater that are visible are truly stunning.

This is one of the interior rooms of the city's Roman Bath. It had Cool, Temperate, and Hot rooms as well as changing rooms, eating rooms, and areas to relax during your day at the spa (assuming you were a member of the upper crust of Roman society)

One of the two intersecting Roman roads through the city.  The Romans built the best roads the ancient world had ever seen.

Our guide was a local Jendouban who remembered Chris when he was a teacher at the local university after he moved from Tunis to Jendouba 10 years ago.  She was extremely knowledgeable about the ruins and spoke very good English (also French, Italian, Spanish, and a little German). When Chris asked how she communicated with Japanese and Chinese tourists she said, "English."


Several of the homes of well-to-do citizens were built with both surface and subterranean levels. That way when the temperature and sun became too oppressive, the families could descend to the lower level and remain cool and relaxed. The walls and ceilings of this level had built-in terra cotta pipes that brought fresh air down from the surface and helped exhaust moisture.

To provide adequate light , some of the homes had open "rooms" on either side of the central room built without roofs or interior-facing walls - so sunlight could find its way to the family downstairs.

An upscale bathroom

The mosaic floors were amazing! Even covered with dust and dirt their beauty and extravagance were easy to see. Our guide carried a bottle of water and every once in a while would sprinkle some water on a particular floor to show us its true colors and detail. (I wished I had a garden hose and a scrub brush to give the floors a real cleaning. Maybe if it rains I'll try to come back for a visit.)

In the center of ancient Bulla Regia was the city's church with its unique four-foot deep baptismal pool constructed in the shape of a cross.






Our tour concluded with a stop at the Bulla Regia city amphitheater.

This marvelous facility had an exterior ring for shops and vendors and a classic interior consisting of a semicircle of banked stone seats facing a raised stage.  Originally the theater held 2500 people but presently can seat only 700-800 because the upper tiers have fallen over the centuries.

As I stood on the stage facing the rows of seats, I could not help but imagine how incredible it must have been to perform in such a place without electronics or amplification and yet have everyone in attendance able to see and hear everything happening on stage.

As we exited the amphitheater we saw an elegantly carved marble statue in an open nook. Elegantly carved but missing its head. Our guide informed us that the leaders of ancient Bulla Regia decided that rather than carve an entirely new statue each time there was a new emperor they would instead only carve his head to be placed on the existing body.  We couldn't help taking advantage of so obvious an opportunity to approximate regaldom.