24 October 2, 2015 Travel www.thearabweekly.com

Agenda

Beirut: Through December 26th

Souk El Tayeb is a weekly market that hosts more than 60 produc- ers from across Lebanon with numerous food products as well as traditional and handmade crafts. Souk El Tayeb is open every Saturday from 9am to 2pm at Beirut Souks in Beirut, facing the Medgulf building on Trablos Street.

Washington: October 1st-4th

The DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival features ten films, discussions with filmmakers, a musical programme and a talk by a photojournalist from Gaza. A new literature programme, featuring authors Suad Amiry and Ibtisam Azem, will intro- duce Arabic to the festival for the first time. Among other firsts, the festival will host Amer Shomali from the Palestinian Sbeitla site, Kasserine. territories and Mauricio Misle from the Palestinian diaspora of Chile. The full programme can Roman-era sites dot Tunisian landscape be found at www.dcpfaf.org. Tangier, Morocco: October 8th-11th

Nejib Ben Lazreg The third Les Nuits Sonores Festi- val is a Moroccan cultural event with a French collaboration that Tunis aims at promoting youth artistic production and cultural ex- he Roman Empire made change between Moroccan and Tunisia the core province European artists. The festival of its rule in Africa and includes music performances created thousands of sites with artists from different coun- and monuments — tem- tries, documentaries and movies Tples, bathhouses, theatres and am- screening, youth forum and phitheatres — that provide interest- other activities ing studies 2,000 years later. Tunisia in the 21st century pro- Egypt: vides excellent study cases for stu- October 10th-17th dents and lovers of Roman art and architecture. Carthage, a UN World The Sphinx Festival explores and Heritage site, is a treasure trove of promotes the cultural arts of sites from various ruling civilisa- Egypt. It includes music, dance tions, beginning with the Phoeni- and poetry performances, tradi- cians, who founded the city through tional ethnic costumes work- the Roman era to modern times. shops, Egyptian dance classes There are several examples and seminars with renowned of temples in Dougga, Sufetula, artists and researchers about Thuburbo Majus, Uthina and un- Sufi and Saidi arts. The festival derground houses — a style em- takes place in different venues, braced from Berber troglodytes — of El Jem amphitheatre such as the ancient Abusir Solar Bulla Regia. Other Roman-era sites Temple, Cairo, and the Egyptian include the 130-kilometre aqueduct oasis. of Zaghouan and Carthage’s Anto- the breadbasket of Rome, using life. Amenities of the structures in- pire and the only one known to be nine baths. The ruins are varied and technology from Punic times to cluded flowing water, baths, paved built in ashlar blocks. Tunis, Tunisia: an important part of study of Ro- develop agriculture and seafaring. streets and roads and entertain- One cannot omit the splendid November 4th-8th man times. The area provided two-thirds of the ment, niceties meant to keep the mosaics conserved in situ and in Roman forces conquered the wheat imported by Rome and sent public diverted from politics. museums. Bardo, Sousse and El The fifthDream City is a multi- area in campaigns 100 years apart the central empire olive oil, garum, Jem museums include examples of disciplinary biennial celebration — in 146BC after the destruction salted fish and other foodstuffs. The Antonine the colourful floors that decorated of contemporary art taking place of Carthage, now a suburb of Tu- The region also exported purple houses and public buildings and in a public space. The event nis, and in 46BC after Julius Cae- dyes, textile and Numidian yellow baths in show off the daily life, generosity, includes movie projections, sar’s victory over Pompey’s allies marble in demand in Rome. Carthage rank superstition, religion and ideology theatre performances, music in Thapsus on the central coast of As much as Rome desired goods of the Roman-era inhabitants. concerts, art exhibitions and modern-day Tunisia. The Romans from the Africa Province, residents third after The loss of Roman influence in more. This edition’s theme is Art controlled the area, known as Africa of the region wanted to be consid- Caracalla’s and the region coincided with the gen- and Social Connection. Artists Province, for about 600 years. ered full citizens of the empire. As eral decline in the Roman Empire. from Africa, the Middle East and The province, which enveloped such they adopted many Roman Diocletian’s in The rise of Christianity led to the Europe will be present. former Carthaginian and Numid- ways, including lifestyles, religion Rome closure of Roman temples and en- ian territories, was huge, even by and culture. There are signs that, tertainment buildings and the de- Tunis, Tunisia: modern standards. It reached well to curry favour, the well-to-do of The grid planning was adopted struction of many statues. Roman November 21st-28th into modern Libya to the east and Africa Province ordered costly con- systematically for new cities such sites were gradually abandoned and Algeria to the west. Carthage, struction programmes to reflect as Carthage, Uthina and Sufetula, often used as stone quarries. The Carthage Film Festival is rebuilt by Augustus, was Roman styles. and partially in the extension of Archaeologists in the late 19th an annual festival created in the provincial capital Given that the old ones, including Bulla Regia, century saw the value of the region 1966 to showcase films from and had a popula- structures came Thuburbo Majus and Mactaris. to their field with finds in Carthage the Maghreb, Africa, and Mid- tion estimated at relatively late in Bulla Regia is the only city in the and, even more than 100 years later, dle East. In its 26th edition the 300,000. That the Roman Em- empire that had underground hous- discoveries continue. festival takes place in Tunis and Rome installed pire period, es, using an idea from the Berbers In 1999 an extraordinary complex other regions of Tunisia. The par- a proconsul many Roman- who built below ground to escape of Christian catacombs and an un- allel programme includes world as governor influenced the heat of summer. The Zaghouan derground chapel paved with tomb cinema projections, Argentine shows the im- technical in- aqueduct was the longest in the Ro- mosaics was discovered in Lamta, a cinema projections, seminars, portance the novations are man Empire and supplied Carthage Roman port city on the east coast. debates and meetings. This edi- empire put on apparent at with 17 million litres of water a day. In 2014, a Christian basilica paved tion will be a tribute to Manoel the region. the archaeo- The Antonine baths in Carthage with tomb mosaic was discovered in de Oliveira, Nouri Bouzid, Essia The Roman logical sites. rank third after Caracalla’s and Dio- the construction of a highway west Djabbar and others. influence led to However, the cletian’s in Rome. Its frigidarium of Medjez-El Bab, in northern Tu- urbanisation of locals included had grey granite monoliths — 17 me- nisia. In 2015, a Roman bathhouse, the region. The new some of the region’s tres tall imported from Egypt and kilns and metallurgy works were We welcome submissions of leaders drew together history, binding the crowned with Corinthian capitals discovered at a site on the southern calendar items related to various settlements into Carthaginian and Roman in Peloponnese marble, weighing 4 Tunisian coast, near Zarzis. Such cultural events of interest what archaeologists estimate cultures into an “Afro-Roman” tons each. finds assure the region will provide are about 23,000 sites in northern civilisation. The amphitheatre of El Jem, an- new insights into Roman Empire life to travellers in the Middle and central Tunisia. This includes One key way Rome extended its other World Heritage site, is the and interesting stops for all tourists. East and North Africa. approximately 200 cities, some of influence was to strongly support largest Roman monument in North which are preserved in good condi- Roman-style construction. The Africa. Built to accommodate Nejib Ben Lazreg is an archaeologist Please send tips to: tion. buildings cemented the popula- 27,000 spectators, it is one of the and researcher with the National [email protected] Africa Province was considered tion and standardised their way of latest big amphitheatres in the em- Heritage Institute in Tunis.