Trips

Sun., 3/5/23 - Sidi Bou Said and Carthage

Today's first stop was at the Sanctuary of Tophet where it is thought that Punics sacrificed their first born to Baal Hammon, the deity that made vegetation grow. Further archeology and research and DNA decided that only babies who died at birth were cremated and buried four deep in the sanctuary or that animals were sacrificed to thank Baal for healthy children. Tophet is in ruins but many headstones are displayed. Punics put the ashes in jars, buried the jar, and placed a stele over the top.

	Some of the many graves at Tophet
A stele for a child	Sanctuary of Tophet ruins
Sanctuary of Tophet	Next we stopped briefly to look at what remains of the two harbors used in Punic and Roman times. Location of ancient Punic and Roman harbors
The highlight of any trip to Carthage is, of course, a visit to the ruins of the Roman Antonine Baths. These baths are the third largest, after those in Rome and Naples, but only the basement level remains. It is difficult to imagine the structure when it was a working place. There were changing rooms, two palestra and gymnasiums, tepidaria (warm rooms), caldaria (hot rooms), a huge central frigidarium (cold room), and rooms to sit and gossip or lecture. The women bathed in the morning and the men in the afternoon. A 132 km long aqueduct brought water from the far hills to this site on the shores of the Mediterranean.
	So you don't get lost
Enjoy the ruins in the photos below (all unlabeled).
The last visit of the trip was to the North African American Cemetery and Memorial	North African American Cemetery and Memorial
North African American Cemetery and Memorial	North African American Cemetery and Memorial

 

Mon., 3/6/23 - Fly Home

This was another very long day on planes and in airports. It began with a 3 AM Lufthansa flight from Tunis to Frankfurt (3 hours). After a 5 1/2 hour layover in Frankfurt, the next flight was on United from Frankfurt to Denver (10 1/2 hours). The flight to Tucson was delayed a few hours so we had another long layover. Finally, we arrived in Tucson after a short 2 hour "hop" from Denver.

We were very happy to pick up our luggage in Tucson after being up for about 48 hours touring Carthage and then flying home. It was a pleasant sight to meet our friendly ArizonaGo driver for the ride to our house.