Rome's greatest amphitheatre outside Italy — rising improbably from Tunisian flatlands
El Jem is a small Tunisian town that contains one of the most astonishing Roman structures in the world: the Amphitheatre of El Jem, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a capacity of 35,000 — the third-largest amphitheatre ever built and the best-preserved in Africa. Unlike Rome's Colosseum, it stands almost entirely intact, its three-storey arcade rising from the olive groves without barriers or fencing. The town also holds a superb archaeological museum with the finest collection of Roman mosaics in the world.
The city of Thysdrus, now El Jem, grew wealthy from olive oil production in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. At its peak it rivalled Carthage as the most prosperous city in Roman Africa. The amphitheatre was built around 238 CE — the same year the local procurator Gordian I was proclaimed Emperor here before his defeat and death. After the Arab conquest the amphitheatre became a fortress; parts of its stone were quarried for the Great Mosque of Kairouan. UNESCO listing in 1979 halted further deterioration.