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Roman Althiburos
Should you be able to make it out here, Medeina has attractive remains
of the Roman city of Althiburos. Back then, the city stood right on the
highway between Carthage and Tebessa (now Algeria).
This
stands in stark contrast to the present landscape, which is dominated
by undulating hills with few inhabitants and vast distances between the
villages.
Medeina is off the beaten track for most visitors, it isn't even
mentioned in Lonely Planet Tunisia. But both the capitol, the paved
road and the theatre are interesting. More unique however is the
Building of Aesclepia and the House of Sixteen Bases.
Building of Aesclepia
What makes the Building of Aesclepia interesting is that we do not know
which purpose the structure served. And it is too large and adorned to
make the question immaterial.
The
structure has much of the shape of a bath, and several of the rooms
have served exactly that purpose. Just check out the mosaics on the
photo on the the bottom of the page. Several rooms have just this. Also
there is water piping allowing large quantities to pass through.
Aesclepia
was the healing god, and it appears most likely that a cult in
connection with him was acted out here in the 3rd and 4th centuries CE.
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