El Jem
A Roman amphitheatre for 35,000 in the middle of an olive plain — an hour from the beach
- When to go
- October 22° · 3 rainy days
- Per day
- €€price 2 of 5
- How many days
- ½days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 51 km Monastir · 65 km Sfax
- Right now
El Jem is one site and one reason: a 3rd-century amphitheatre standing whole, with three tiers of arcades, the arena and an underground level you walk down into, in a small town that grew up around it and has nothing else. Done in half a day from Sousse or Monastir, with the mosaic museum and a reconstructed Roman villa a kilometre away that most people skip and should not.
The amphitheatre was built around 238 in the town of Thysdrus, which was rich on olive oil, and was never quite finished — the money vanished with a revolt against Rome in the same year. It stands on a plain without a single hill around it, so you see it from the train kilometres before the station and it looks bigger than it is. Inside you walk the arcades on all three levels, the arena, and the underground passages through which animals and gladiators were lifted onto the stage. The ticket is €6, museum included, and an hour and a half is enough.
The museum is a kilometre away, in the direction you arrive from by train, and holds mosaics from the Roman villas of Thysdrus in the state they were found — floors with lions, tigers and muses, in a house reconstructed around them. In the park beside the museum stands Villa Africa too, a 2nd-century patrician house moved and rebuilt at full scale, on almost 3,000 square metres — one of the largest in Roman Africa. The floor of its main hall carries the mosaic of the goddess Africa, wearing an elephant hide instead of a crown. Hardly anyone reaches the museum and the villa, and that is a mistake: the mosaics here lie exactly where they were found, on the floor, not lined up against a museum wall.
You come by train from Sousse in an hour, from the station in the centre, or by louage from the louage station, which stops closer to the amphitheatre and leaves as soon as it fills. From Monastir it is the same. Anyone with a driver joins El Jem to Kairouan in one long day — an hour and a half between them, and both are on the UNESCO list. In summer you go early, because the arena has no shade and at noon it is forty degrees on the stone; the museum and the villa are air-conditioned and come second. In mid-summer the same arena hosts a symphonic music festival in the evenings.
Guides for El Jem
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
El Jem in 1 day
→The amphitheatre first, while the arena is still out of the sun, then the museum and Villa Africa a kilometre on, which…
What to see in El Jem
Three tiers of arcades
An outer wall of 36 metres with three rows of arches, walked on every level. The top tier gives the view of the olive plain to the horizon, and of a town that is entirely lower than the amphitheatre.
€6
Beneath the arena
Two passages under the arena with cells for animals and the openings through which they were lifted onto the stage. Open and walked, which in Rome needs a special ticket. Cool and dark — the best place at noon.
€6
The arena
An ellipse of 65 by 39 metres, entered through the gladiators' gate. The symphonic music festival (11 Jul–15 Aug) holds its evening concerts here, on seats sat on 1,800 years ago.
€6
The mosaic museum
A kilometre from the amphitheatre, with floors from Roman villas and a house reconstructed around them. Empty, air-conditioned and on the same ticket. An hour, after the arena.
€6 · 1 h
The train from Sousse
An hour through olive groves, from the station in the centre of Sousse to a station fifteen minutes' walk from the amphitheatre. Departures are frequent, no booking or tour needed; the louage is faster and stops closer.
about 1 h
Villa Africa
A 2nd-century patrician house, rebuilt at full scale in the park beside the museum, on almost 3,000 square metres. The floor of its main hall carries the mosaic of the goddess Africa, 1.60 by 1.60 metres. Same ticket as the amphitheatre and the museum.
€6
Stories from El Jem
How it actually was when we were there, and what was worth it.
El Jem after the Colosseum: all of it on one ticket, no time slot
→At the Colosseum you choose between the underground and the upper tiers. At El Jem you do not — and that is the reason to see it even after Rome.
Two things you probably did not know
The amphitheatre at El Djem held around thirty-five thousand spectators, in a town that today has some twenty thousand people. It is the third largest in the Roman world and better preserved than the Colosseum.
Scenes for Gladiator and for Monty Python's Life of Brian were shot in the amphitheatre. Today it hosts a festival of symphonic music each summer.
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