ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SBEÏTLA (THE ANCIENT SUFETULA)

With its triumphal arch and its temple, whose columns still rise proudly, the site of Sbeïtla, vestige of the ancient Sufetula, is one of the most important archaeological sites of the country, especially by its extent and its variety. Budding archaeologists will obviously be fascinated by the reading of these stones and will mentally reconstitute a flourishing city where tribunes in toga came to harangue the crowd on the forum. Here, it is in the best interest to ensure the assistance of an official guide (it is better to ask the tourist office) to identify the places, some stones being much less meaningful than others and the false guides not being much more informed than the tourist lost on these hectares of ruins. The presence of a qualified guide will only make your visit richer, livelier and more pleasant. The originality of the capitol is to be separated in three temples: the building on the left was dedicated to Minerva, the one in the center to Jupiter and the one on the right to Juno.

To the left of the entrance of the site, a path leads to the forum, which has been modified several times during the centuries. It is accessed through the monumental gate of Antoninus, in the form of a three-bay arch, dedicated to Antoninus the Pious and his two adopted sons, Marcus Aurelius (future emperor) and Lucius Verus. Dated 139 A.D., this gate is integrated into the enclosing wall (70 meters by 67 meters) that surrounds the forum. All along this wall are small rooms preceded by a colonnaded portico. At the back of the forum, there is a capitol dedicated to the three main deities of the Roman pantheon: Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Main originality of Sbeïtla, its capitol is formed of three temples and not of a temple provided with three chapels as the classical disposition wants. To preserve the unity of the three temples, the access to the central temple, preceded by a tribune without stairs, is controlled by the two lateral temples. The Arch of Diocletian is an imposing doorway, equipped with canopies with columns forming an opening of more than five meters dedicated to the four emperors who reigned together around 300 AD. Along the road leading to it, Byzantine forts, enclosures without doors and equipped to support a siege (chambers, wells), testify to the insecurity that reigned in the region before it came under Muslim rule. Placed on the edge of the ravine of the oued Sbeïtla, the theater of this archaeological site benefits from a superb and picturesque setting. Unfortunately, of the primitive building hardly remains any more than the orchestra, the terraces being very damaged. Near the theater, the large thermal baths with geometrical patterns.

The archeological site of Sbeïtla has several churches which testify to the Christian influence in ancient Tunisia. To the north of the forum, the church of Bellator, of rather modest size with its two apses, includes a baptistery transformed into a chapel and built in homage to the bishop Jucundus, martyred by the Vandals at the beginning of the^5th century. Of larger size than the church of Bellator, the church of Vitalis shelters in one of its two apses a baptistery decorated with mosaics. The church of Servus was built by a sect opposed to the Catholics (probably the Donatists) on an ancient pagan sanctuary, whose temple was used as foundation for the baptistery of the church.