ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF SOUSSE

This museum is well worth a visit on your tour of Tunisia! Housed in the medina fortress, this archaeological museum is the largest in Tunisia after the Bardo Museum in Tunis. The underground halls cover an area of 2,000^m2 and are particularly well staged. Recently reopened after an ambitious restoration project, Sousse's archaeological museum exhibits, beneath the Kasbah's great courtyard, important collections of mosaics, including one of the most famous, The Triumph of Bacchus, dating from the ^3rd century, and a Medusa head, a ^2nd-century piece depicting this mythological being with a decoration of radiating scales reminiscent of Medusa's hypnotic power. In addition to the mosaics, the Sousse Archaeological Museum also houses items of everyday life from the ^2nd to the ^4th centuries. The Libyan-Punic room houses an important collection of steles and urns, as well as tomb furnishings. The Roman room houses a collection of pagan funerary stelae. The Christian room features stelae mosaics and funerary reliefs, the most important in the ancient world after those of Rome. Many of the exhibits come from excavations in the catacombs to the west of the city. Outside the museum, the medieval fortress provides visitors with walking areas and panoramic views of the old medina.