Spent a lovely morning in Monastir founded by the Phoenicians as a port and where Julius Caesar camped before battle in AD46. It is now a thriving tourist destination and university town.
Habib Bourguiba studied in Tunis then went to the Sorbonne in Paris to study law. He campaigned tirelessly against French occupation and when it regained independence in 1956 he became its first president.
He is revered greatly and has a wonderful Mausoleum in which his remains are kept in a marble sarcophagus.
It has a gilt cupola and twin minarets
The three ton chandelier hanging over the sarcophagus.
At the beginning of the avenue is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, very modest in comparison and there is a matching structure on the other side for symmetry.
There are lots of pigeons around the area and our guide told us it is because of the graveyard next door and when people come to pay their respects to loved ones they bring rice and water which they leave on top of the tombstone, the pigeons then eat the rice. There are also lots of cats in the area – the circle of life.
The next visit was to the ribat, a defensive fortress, built in the holy war against Christians.
The walls were completed in the 11th century with four gates, a watchtower and accommodation for soldiers
It is one of the oldest and best preserved in Tunisia and was used for scenes in Zeffirelli’s Life of Christ and Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Some examples of pottery and textiles from the site
A short walk around the medina
The remains of a Roman house, now a rubbish dumping ground!
A statue of Bourguiba as a child on the site of his primary school
