Heather – Page 2 – Not Your Average Engineer

November 10, 2004November 15, 2021

Ain Draham

Moving on from Tabarka, we wound our way up into the northwestern mountains of Tunisia. Known as the Kroumirie Mountains, its one of the few areas in Tunisia to get significant rainfall and, occasionally, snow! We stopped off at Ain Draham, the mountain station of Tunisia. The town sits at about 1000 meters nestled at the top of the pass on the road between Tabarka and Jendouba. Between Ain Draham and Tabarka, the road winds its way within about 500 meters of the border with Algeria. In Ain Draham, you can gaze across the valley to Algeria.

The entire region is filled with cork forests. We spied several trees that had been freshly harvested. To harvest the cork bark off of a cork tree, one makes a circular cut at the top and bottom of the trunk and one slit all the way down the length of the tree. Be sure to be careful not to cut all the way through the bark, as the inner layers transport nutrients up and down the trunk. I’m told that a cork tree can be harvested once every ten years or so.

In Ain Draham, our main goal was to see the women’s carpet cooperative that one of our guide books talked about. After some hiking around, we finally found it. The place mainly handles traditional Berber carpets with a few more modern designs. In the end, I bought a carpet and a bunch of carpet squares. Giovanna bought two carpets, some carpet squares, some knitted sweaters and gloves and hats and whatnot, and maybe a few other things. Heather bought some carpet squares and some knitted goods. We packaged all of the carpets together into a huge roll that just barely fit into a burlap feed sack. I lashed the roll under my backpack. Since we were taking louages everywhere, we had to be mobile. Looking back on it, we were rather insane. Those carpets must have weighed 20 kilos!

The carpet cooperative.

I worked with the women for a while. They seemed pretty happy that a foreign guy would be interested in how they make carpets.

Me examining the carpets. I chose the smaller one. It now resides on my floor.

What a great place to sit and stay a while.

November 10, 2004November 15, 2021

Bulla Regia

Onward from Ain Draham, we went to Bulla Regia, arguably one of the most impressive Roman sites in North Africa. Unlike most other Roman sites, it is possible to walk into complete Roman rooms, including ceilings and mosaics! Unfortunately, as it was during Ramadan, we had an even hour to see the entire site. We left our bags in the ticket office and proceeded to sprint through the sprawling site. Somehow, in spite of the time crunch, we managed to see every single site in the complex, make it out before they locked the gates, get a taxi back into town, get a louage to Le Kef, and actually get out of Jendouba before sunset. For those of you who have been to Jendouba, you know exactly why it is important to be out of Jendouba before sunset.

The gates to Bulla Regia.

This is where Giovanna said “Oh crap! This is a really big site and I only brought three rolls of film!”

Inside our first Roman room.

Those Roman carts sure made a lot of ruts in the Roman roads!

The Memmian Baths.

Local “wildlife”. Throughout the ruins there were flocks of sheep and the occasional cow grazing. Its a cheap form of grounds care and it supplements the guards’ income. Plus it makes for good pictures.

These Roman houses really are underground! This house only had part of its ceiling intact. This is the Treasure House. When excavated, a horde of coins was discovered hidden in the ruins.

By far, the most impressive house purely for the architecture, the House of the Hunt, has these very interesting and unique hexagonal “windows” in the support structure. The reasons behind this seem to be, aside from ascetics, more structural in nature. This design helps lighten the load carried by the columns and also helps deflect the weight to the columns rather than having an unsupported load in the middle of the span between columns. This house was also one of the most extensive with areas for sleeping, eating, hanging out, and other such underground activities.

One of our guides/guards. He showed us around a few of the underground villas and splashed water on the mosaics to make the colors more vivid. It probably isn’t the best for preserving the mosaics, but it made for stunning photos! We gave him a two or three Dinar tip.

This is the House of Amphitrite. When Bulla Regia was excavated a rather disturbing discovery was made in this house. The archaeologists found a skeleton tied to a chair with an iron ring around its neck inscribed “Adulterous prostitutes: hold me, because I ran away from Bulla Regia.” We didn’t observe any prostitutes in Bulla Regia the day we visited. However, the guide did show us the penis carved in relief on a rock wall indicating the direction to the old whore house. This indication of the direction to the brothel is not unique to Bulla Regia. I personally observed the same symbol at the Roman site of Mustis just north of the present-day town of Krib.

Walking through the Forum.

Outside of the Theater. I personally think that this one is much more impressive than the one at Dougga for the structural engineering that went into it. Also, its very complete and has only had minor preservation work done to the structure.

Temple of Isis.

In the belly of the Memmian Baths complex.

Giovanna decided she wanted a picture up on the baths. She saw one of the guards up there earlier so she figured it wouldn’t be hard to get up there. It wasn’t. Good thing she didn’t let her fear of heights get to her because it was a long way down!

Bye bye Bulla Regia!

November 10, 2004November 15, 2021

Tabarka

Arrr! Thar be pirates in Tabarka! These pirate galleons are used to take tourists out in the summer on the water for some recreational activities.

Part of the Tunisian fishing fleet designed for the open seas.

Looking across to the small Zone Touristique. Tabarka is trying to imitate the supposed success of places such as Hammamet and Sousse. The water is a chocolate brown from all of the erosion. Every time it rains, the water turns brown.

Walking along the access road on the landward side of the island a few hundred meters off the coast from Tabarka. Well, actually the French built a causeway out to the island just after World War II.

Looking back toward the causeway and Tabarka.

Giovanna wanted a picture with some Genoese ruins. She had to do a bit of work to get that shot.

The island is covered with old ruins from the former owners. The main attraction on the island is the Genoese fort. It was occupied by the Genoese from 1542 when Dragut, the famed and feared Muslim corsair, was captured and ransomed. His cohort, Khaired-Din Barbarossa, gave up the island to get his buddy back. The Genoese also secured the coral diving and harvesting rites to northern Tunisia. The Genoese mainly concerned themselves with coral and with acting as agents for ransoming slaves from Tunis. Back then, there was a healthy slave trade both coming up from Sub-Saharan Africa and from the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In 1741, the Genoese found themselves in need of agents when the island was finally taken by the Bey of Tunis. The old Genoese names still survive in the Tunis Medina today.

The door to the fort was unfortunately locked. Its supposed to be converted into a museum but it appears to still be some sort of a police station or military base.

Those guys are fishing for something.

The Needles, as they’re known locally. The promenade between Tabarka proper and the amphitheater where the international jazz festival is held every summer tunnels through the rocks to make it around the corner.

We decided to go out to the Zone Touristique to relax a bit and sit on the beach. Of course the beach was icy cold!

The beach was covered with winged black ants along the surf line.

looking out from the inside of the hotel we spent some time at.

Hotel Montana and Disco Montana. Not exactly what you’d expect to see in downtown Tabarka!

The view from our hotel room window. We stayed at the Hotel Novelty in downtown Tabarka. We made the trip during Ramadan so by this point we were very hungry!

Getting ready to go in the morning.

There are lots of unfinished buildings in Tabarka. There was a big push a few years back to tear down the old buildings and build new and “modern” ones. Tabarka is slowly losing its charm. For some reason, a lot of the construction looks to have stalled out back in 2001 or 2002.

This used to be a Roman cistern which was later modified and converted into a little fort which was used by Christian traders in the 12th century.