Tunisia’s Match for Rome’s Colosseum in El Jem

I reached the Tunisian town of El Jem (or El Djem) by train from Sousse, but it wouldn't matter which direction you came from: you can't miss the El Jem Amphitheatre. It towers out of the desert, shading the small town that's grown up around it. The Colosseum in Rome might be slightly larger, but it's surrounded by a huge city, and that makes the Tunisian version really very special. And while many guidebooks refer to it as the El Jem Colosseum, experts say that it's really an amphitheatre - call it what you will, you still have to see it.

When I arrived at El Jem train station, I couldn't wait to head over to the amphitheatre. I'll admit that at the time I was calling it a colosseum, just as my Lonely Planet guide book had done - and it really did look like a dead ringer for the Colosseum in Rome. But so much better, because it was out here in the middle of Tunisia with just a tiny fraction of the tourists that Rome has. It cost the equivalent of about $3 to enter, and then I was free to explore every angle of it.

I started at the bottom: the lion's den, literally. Passages under the center stage showed you where the ferocious beasts waited before some kind of gladitorial encounter. Then I walked around in the center of the amphitheatre, imagining the crowds that might have gathered there in the third century, when it was first built. From that angle, unable to see any of the modern day town of El Jem, I could almost transport myself back in time - although I was glad there weren't any real lions around. At least half of the grandstands of the amphitheatre are still standing and are in good condition, and visitors can walk up and down here to get views both over the amphitheatre and over the town and desert. My big tip is to get there at sunset when the softer sunlight turns the stone a golden yellow, and your photographs will be magical.