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The foundations of the Antonine Baths in Carthage

Completed in the 2nd century AD, destroyed by the Vandals in 439 AD, it was the largest bath complex outside Rome

The Capitole dominated the Roman Empire city of Dougga, built on top of Thugga,

the Numidian city that had backed the losing side in a Roman civil war

Front & Back views of the minaret of the Muslim mosque in the village of Testour (northern Tunisia)

Built in the 17th Century by cooperating Muslim & Jewish refugees from Andalucia (Southern Spain)

Hence the two Stars of David (right photo) and the backward clock (left) hoping to "turn back the clock"

A Muslim cemetary at Monaster

The third largest Colosseum in the Roman Empire (3rd Century AD, seating 30,000, at El-Djem)

Where would-be Roman Emperior Gordian is said to have committed suicide in 238 AD upon defeat

And where the Berber warrior princess Al-Kahina made her last stand against the Arab forces (late 7th Century)

A passage to the upper seating levels (cheap seats) of the Colosseum at El-Djem

The Great Courtyard of the Great Mosque of Kairouan

The fourth holiest site in Islam and the oldest mosque in North Africa

A butcher in the Medina of Kairouan proves that his beef is fresh

A back street in the Medina of Kairouan

There are countless back streets in the Medina of Kairouan

The remains of the Church of St. Servus, in Sufetula

Built by Christians in the 4th Century AD on top of Roman ruins

Into the Sahara Desert, crossing Chott El-Jerid:

A 5000 sq/km dry salt lake (with local artwork)

Our camel takes us further into the Saharan sands

Lieschen in front of a particularly large sand dune, showing the tracks from our arrival

"Star Wars" and "The English Patient" were both filmed nearby

Our tented camp in the Sahara Desert at sunset

We should have kept our camels:

Our 4WD gets (briefly) stuck in  the Saharan sand dunes

One of the many hilltop villages on the fringes of the Sahara

With cave-like living quarters dug out of the soft rock

Numerous Ksours (fortified granaries) were built first by Berbers and then by Arabs,

on the fringes of the Sahara, to enable survival in bad crop years

The men's Prayer Hall in the El-Ghriba Synagogue in Jerba contains the world's oldest Sefer Torah

And is the site of a 2002 Al Qaeda bombing in relatively peaceful Tunisia (at least before January 2011)

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� Peter Bierstedt