After breakfast and
a visit to the bank to get hold of some much needed Dinars,
we set off for El Jem. This
ancient city is built around a Colosseum, 148 meters long
and 122 meters wide, making it the third largest colosseum
in the world (after Rome and Capua). Much
smaller than its famous counterpart in
Rome, it was used as the arena for Ridley Scott’s
2000 blockbuster movie Gladiator,
starring Russell Crowe. Needless to say it took some serious
special effects work to make it look like Rome. But I’m sure many people believe it was actually shot
in Rome, so the filmmakers
did a good job.
On to Kairouan
then, the fourth most important holy city to the Muslims,
after Mekka, Medina and Jerusalem. The
name means ‘caravan’ in Arabic and the city, founded in 671,
was Tunisia’s capital for a very long time. Lucas & Co dropped
the ‘uan’ from the name, so to speak, and had the city
streets dub for those of the Egyptian capital
Cairo in the original Indiana Jones film
Raiders of the Lost
Ark. We had our
veritable own Dr Jones with us – Colin from the
UK – who had done some extensive research in
years past and gave us a wonderful tour of the old city,
pointing out various filming locations and even acting them
out for photographic purposes.
We found the door
that Marion
jumped into to come out with a frying pan and hit the
Touareg over the head with, as well as the square where the
truck explodes. We found several alleys that can be seen in
the basket chase and the café where Indy is saved by the
children. There is the balcony where the German spies
conspire against our hero and the souk where Marion and Indy
go for a walk. Some of the details (like the blue door where
the German spy smokes his cigarette) are exactly the same as
over thirty years ago. Amazing!
We then boarded our
landspeeders for the longest drive yet. Five hours all the
way to Tozeur, where we enjoyed a wonderful meal and way too
many alcoholic beverages. The party lasted longer than
anticipated.
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