Amphitheatre of El Jem Tunisia

Legendary

A 35,000 spectator amphitheater built in AD 238 by Emperor Gordian.

Photo by Carole Raddato

Standing in the middle of a small Tunisian town, with one- and two-story houses spread around its base, the Amphitheatre of El Jem rises 36 meters into the sky. It is so tall it still dominates the entire skyline, exactly as it did nearly 1,800 years ago when gladiators fought inside it. From a distance it looks almost identical to the Colosseum in Rome, and that is not a coincidence.

Construction began around 238 AD in what was then the Roman city of Thysdrus, the name by which El Jem was previously known. Thysdrus had grown wealthy from the olive oil trade and sat at the center of Roman North Africa's agricultural economy. The amphitheatre was built entirely of massive stone blocks with no foundations, free-standing on flat desert ground, modeled directly on the Colosseum but never quite finished.

At its peak it could hold 35,000 spectators, more than the entire population of the town itself. The underground passages beneath the arena are still intact, including the cells where gladiators waited, the cages where animals were kept, and the shafts used to raise both up into the arena through trapdoors in the floor.

After Rome fell, the amphitheatre became a fortress. Vandals sheltered here in 430 AD. Arab forces used it during invasions in the 7th century. A Berber queen named Kahina is said to have made her last stand here against Arab conquerors. Local residents later quarried its stone for building materials. In 1850 an Ottoman cannon blew a large breach in one wall to flush out rebels hiding inside.

Walk the underground galleries where gladiators and lions once waited. Climb to the upper tiers for views across the plains of central Tunisia. The El Jem Museum next door holds some of the finest Roman mosaics in the world, pulled from the villas that once surrounded the arena.