The city of El Jem

The city of El Jem, is located a good fifty kilometers from Sfax and Sousse. It is famous all over the world for its huge amphitheater, the largest Roman building still standing in Tunisia. Imagine that its size even exceeds the famous arenas of Arles and Nîmes! The city was, in Antiquity, one of the richest cities in the East. Its prestigious history left behind many traces and multiple testimonies still visible today.

El Jem is home to the third largest amphitheater in the Roman world after those of Capua and Rome. This site, listed as a World Heritage Site since the late 1970s, is located in the heart of a concentric square surrounded by restaurants and souvenir shops.

As soon as you walk through the entrance doors, visitors find themselves gripped by the size of the Colosseum: an architectural monster nearly 150 meters long, 36 meters high and 124 meters wide. In Antiquity, the site could accommodate nearly 40,000 visitors, barely less than the Colosseum in Rome, which could accommodate 45,000 people.

The El Jem amphitheater was built in the 3rd century AD and has hosted the International Festival of Symphonic Music every year since its restoration. An unmissable event to appreciate the grandeur of the monument.

A stone’s throw from the Colosseum, you can also visit the El Jem museum to retrace the entire history of the ancient city. The museum houses many exhibition rooms offering reconstructions, mosaics and some of the remains discovered in the region by archaeologists.