Dennis Jarvis' Photo Travelogue: Dougga (Tunisia)

In my introductory post about the many adventures of Dennis Jarvis from Halifax Canada, I promised to build up more on the places he visited and traveled around the world. 

Ruins of Dougga Theatre

Starting from his visit to Tunisia, Jarvis' photo-stream first touches upon the ruins of Dougga, also called Thugga. Dougga is an ancient Roman city in the Northern Tunisia, spread over an area of 65 hectares   Due to its place in history, specially the Roman history, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, believing that it represents “the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa”. 

The site, which lies in the middle of the countryside, has been protected from the encroachment of modern urbanization  in contrast, for example, to Carthage, which has been pillaged and rebuilt on numerous occasions.

Dougga’s size, monuments and its rich Numidian-Berber, Punic, ancient Roman and Byzantine history make it exceptional. Among the most famous monuments at the site are a Punic-Libyan mausoleum, the capitol, the theatre, and the temples of Saturn and of Juno Caelestis.

Inside of Dougga Theatre

The Dougga theatre has been restored so that concerts can be held there, holding up to 3500 people. On some of the stones at the theatre and nearby you can still read some engraved words, there are also intricately carved columns still standing.

The Dougga Theatre is a huge structure that catered for the seating capacity of thousands.

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The theatre, which was built in 168 or 169 AD, is one of the best preserved examples in Roman Africa. It could seat 3500 spectators, even though Dougga only had 5000 inhabitants. It was one of a series of imperial buildings constructed over the course of two centuries at Dougga which deviate from the classic “blueprints” only in as much as they have been adapted to take account of the local terrain. Some minor adjustments have been made and the local architects had a certain freedom with regard to the ornamentation of the buildings

A magnificent theatre and as good or better than others I have seen in the Roman world, not the largest.

Jarvis while appreciating the way these archaeological remains have been preserved, is also mouthful of the friendliness of the people of Tunisia, their warm hospitality and sport.

As for the above photograph, I put this up by itself so I could make a point. I have been in many countries around the world and I will say that the people of Tunisia are very friendly, they did not ask for money when you took their pictures and always offered a smile. This young lady just waved at me for no reason other than to say hi. Also notice the writing at the top of the column and on the block beside her.

I love ancient ruins and building but the best part of travelling is meeting the people and seeing how they live.

So here we come to an end of Jarvis visit to Dougga ruins. In my next post I shall cover 'Kairouan,' a very important place of Tunisia and its relevance to Muslim architecture and graves of companions of the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon Him.

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Dennis Jarvis' Photo Travelogue - Tunisia

Most of us know that Tunisia is an Islamic country located in Africa - but perhaps not more than that. I too did not have a detailed knowledge of Tunisia either till a few days back.

Dennis Jarvis with amphitheater in the background at  the historic city of El Djem, Tunisia

It was just by chance that I came across a very wide collection of photos of Dennis Jarvis from Halifax Canada on Flickr, where I also share my photos as jalalspages, who has widely traveled around the world, including Tunisia.

And when I started to explore his photo-stream of Tunisia, I was flabbergasted to see the archaeological richness of this African country which dates back to 10th century BC. And then as I kept moving forward into his photo-stream, I virtually traveled form northeast of Tunisia along the Mediterranean Sea and then continued traveling to its eastern border and saw the beautifully photographed archaeological trove of Tunisia by Jarvis. 

Map Tunisia: The routes shown in green are almost the same as traveled by Jarvis

I may add here that Tunisia, which derives its name from Tunis - which is the capital of modern day Tunisia today, is the smallest country in North Africa, spread over an area of 165,000 square kilometres with an estimated population of 10.7 million. 

Mirage at the Sahara Desert

It is a Maghreb country bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. The south of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) of coastline.

The Mosque of Uqba or the Great Mosque of Kairouan - built by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi in 670 AD - is one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world

The majority of Tunisia's population (around 98%) are Muslims while about 1% follow Christianity and the remaining 1% adhere to Judaism or other religions. The bulk of Tunisians belong to the Maliki School of Sunni Islam and their mosques are easily recognizable by square minarets. However, the Turks brought with them the teaching of the Hanafi School during the Ottoman rule which still survives among the Turkish descended families today, their mosques traditionally have octagonal minarets.

Arabic is the official language, and Tunisian Arabic, known as Derja, is the local, vernacular variety of Arabic and is used by the public. Due to the former French occupation, French is widely used in education, the press, and in business.

Since I have already shared photos of many Flickr friends including Mary Loosemore, Lindsay, Tahir Iqbal, Daoudpota, Asif Saeed, khurram Saddiqui, BaltistaN PiczO, SaffyH and Dr. Shahid, I requested Dennis Jarvis to allow me sharing his photo trove to build photo travelogue of Tunisia and other places to share with my reader - which he graciously permitted.

Like Mary Loosemore's photo travelogues that I have broken down in a number of posts, I shall also travel with Dennis Jarvis in Tunisia and compose a number of posts as each place in Tunia deserves a separate and special handling.

While sharing Jarvis' photos, I shall also include a bit on history of each place so as to build an overall picture of the history of Tunisia from the earliest of times to modern day Tunisia.

Remains of an ancient Roman city Dougga 

So wait for my next post which will be about the archaeological remains of Dougga or Thugga, which was once a thriving Roman city in northern Tunisia, spread over an area of 65 hectare.


Resource Reference: Wikipedia

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