Tunisia

When J and I told the kiddos that we'd be visiting an African country, they envisioned rides in a jeep and looking for wildebeests while on safari.

While our visit was a bit more tame than what they'd envisaged, it was no less the adventure for it.

J and Log wanted to travel to sites where 'Star Wars' had been filmed while I was anxious to visit Carthage, an ancient city founded by the exiled Phoenician princess Dido. In addition to traveling to Carthage, we also visited Sidi Bou Said, the Bardo and Medina's Souk.

Sidi Bou Said, known for its blue and white architecture, is a town wealthy citizens and foreigners visit in order to escape the claustrophobic capital of Tunis. Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde and Sophia Loren have spent holidays here. Buildings are painted white to deflect the sun's intense rays, and blue is said to be a color that invites prosperity.

Littlest sitting on the Roman aqueduct which was built over 2,000 years ago. This particular aqueduct transported water from the Atlas Mountains to Carthage, a distance of nearly 70 miles. Every 12 miles, the aqueduct dropped a few centimeters in order to keep the water flowing toward Carthage over the flat lands.

The knotted residences of Tunis

Perhaps nothing was more exhilarating than the Souk, a marketplace in the ancient section of Medina. The marketplace was something like a rat maze with perfumed air wafting about the droves of impossibly small shops that turned out linen goods and hammered gold. In one shop, I spotted a necklace and bracelet that were quite striking. In keeping with Arabic culture, a bartering war ensued with J coming out on the winning side.

The Bardo Musuem, housed in a near dilapidated former Sheik's palace, boasts the world's largest display of mosaics many of which come from Carthage.

A floor depicting Roman Gods (who were the namesakes of the days of the week) and the horoscope.

I studied Latin for several years and wrote a report on Hannibal in that declension-heavy dead language, so I was anxious to see Carthage. Much of Carthage remains buried underneath today's city of Tunis, but a bit of the city that borders the sea has been excavated. When Dido arrived on the African coast, legend has it that she asked the local people for a plot of land large enough to fit inside of a bull's hide. The local people agreed easily since such a request was sure to be a small plot. Clever as she was, Dido cut the bull's hide into small bits and walked in a large circle dropping the bits and pieces behind her. Her grant of land became the city of Carthage, a city that would one day challenge Rome's authority under Hannibal's leadership as he attempted to lay siege to Rome atop an elephant.