Tunis

Ancient Carthage sits within Tunis' modern suburbs, a short ride on the city's TGM light rail line from downtown. Founded by Phoenician settlers around the 9th century BCE, Carthage grew into a maritime power that rivaled and eventually fought Rome directly across three brutal wars, most famously under the general Hannibal, who marched an army, elephants included, across the Alps to invade Italy directly. Rome finally destroyed the city in 146 BCE, ending the Third Punic War so thoroughly that the site was reportedly salted to prevent regrowth, though historians debate how literally that specific detail should be taken.

Rome later rebuilt Carthage as a major provincial city, and most of what visitors see on-site today, including the Antonine Baths, dates from that Roman-era reconstruction rather than the earlier Phoenician city, since the original Phoenician remains were largely destroyed or built over. Byrsa Hill, Carthage's ancient citadel, now holds a museum surveying both layers of the city's history side by side.

The Bardo Museum, housed in a former Ottoman-era palace in Tunis, holds one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics anywhere in the world, pulled from villas and public buildings across Tunisia's extensive Roman-era archaeological sites. The scale and preservation of the mosaics, some covering entire room-sized floors, reflects just how thoroughly Romanized this part of North Africa became after Carthage's fall.

Sidi Bou Said, a clifftop village a short trip from central Tunis, enforces a strict blue-and-white building code that gives it a genuinely distinct look, and its Mediterranean views and narrow, flower-lined streets have drawn artists for over a century, including the painter Paul Klee, whose 1914 visit is often credited with helping put the village on the international art map.

Tunisia holds a distinct place in recent history as the birthplace of the Arab Spring: the self-immolation of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in the town of Sidi Bouzid in December 2010 sparked protests that toppled Tunisia's government within weeks and set off a wave of uprisings across the wider Arab world the following year, a legacy Tunisians reference directly when discussing the country's more recent political history.