 Good morning from the city of Souz. Good morning. I left the capital Tunis yesterday and made my way down south. Souz is the city located about 140 kilometers south of the capital Tunis. And it's a very popular city because it's a base to go and travel and visit a lot of monuments here in Tunisia like El Jem, the city of Qayraland, the city of Monastir. And it's really beautiful. So this morning I am outside of the walls of the Medina. I'm staying in the old Medina of Souz, or Souzah, in Arabic and as the Tunisian colleagues, Souzah. And the adventure today is going to take us to El Jem. And there's a really neat monument that I'm so excited to share with you guys. It's going to blow your mind. And the Medina looks really pretty. I haven't explored the Medina yet. It just arrived here later in the day yesterday. But there are a lot of wonderful things to see here. I'm going to share them with you on a different video. But for this morning I'm going to just grab some breakfast quickly and then take the louage. The louage is the popular mode of transportation, public transportation here in Tunisia. And it's actually very reasonably priced and very efficient. So we'll grab a louage and make my way to the city of El Jem. Just got my meleoui for the morning. This is becoming my absolute favorite thing to eat here in Tunisia, especially for breakfast. And it's basically a tortilla or like a flat bread, soft flat bread. And then they fill it with a bunch of things. So usually cheese, mayo, and you can add proteins like eggs or chicken. I call it escalope or shawarma. There are a lot of options and they do add the harissa sauce, which is the spicy sauce that Tunisia is very known for. So I usually just go with mayo, cheese, eggs and the jambo. And it's absolutely delicious. But I'm just waiting for a taxi. I'm going to take a small taxi to make my way to the louage station. I will make my way to the louage station and we'll start our adventure from there. Salam. I'm outside of the louage station. It's right there. And this is how it goes. You just walk towards the door and then you will hear a lot of people, you know, yelling the names of the destinations. So trying to find a spot to go to El Jem. So we'll see if somebody will spot me before I spot them. I am actually a bit impressed because compared to many stations that I've seen in Tunis, the capital, this one looks like somebody wanted to say hi. The station out here in Sous, oh my gosh, like it's very well organized. It's not as chaotic as the other stations, which is really nice. So I've got signs for Tunis, Nabool, Monastir. This is slightly different. So I get to grab my ticket instead of having to pay the louage driver, which is also common. So we'll get the ticket from right there and then we'll find my van for today. Salam. Thank you. 6,800, which is 6.8 dinars. El Jem. There we go. Just arrived in El Jem. This is the louage station in El Jem. And I'm going to be walking to make my way to the Colosseum. Yes, yes, yes, you heard it right. There is a Colosseum out here. It's not supposed to be a very long walk, but this is the city of El Jem. You'll notice in Tunisia that they do sell a lot of fennel. And I saw that couple of times, I was a little bit surprised, but it turns out it's actually a snack that they sell. It's like street food where they basically just sell raw fennel and then they just add some salt, lemon juice, and it's actually really good. I tried it the other day and I'm like, wow, this is my new favorite snack. So that's a mosque in the center of the city here. And oh my gosh, there it is. Wow, it is right there. That's insane. Oh my gosh, this is unbelievable just around the corner. I am honestly in complete disbelief that it's just right there. This is the third largest Colosseum in the world and the best preserved Colosseum. And it's here in Africa, it's in Tunisia, and it's a UNESCO World Heritage. What an incredible sight. I am so excited to go in and see from the inside because I heard, unlike the Colosseum in Rome, which I visited just about a month ago, there's so much that you can see inside and you have more freedom to really explore, which I'm very, very excited about, but wow, wow, wow, this is amazing. Thank you. This is 8, it's not 12. 8? What? Is it 12? No, 12 is 8 for Tunisian and Maghreb, Maghreb-Arab. Oh, it's the same price for Maghreb-Arab? Yes. Oh, okay. So you are Maghreb-Arab? Yes, I am. Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. I got my ticket. You have to go through a security check. Take care that I go. Actually, I just realized that it will allow you to enter the amphitheater, but also the museum because there is a museum right outside of the Colosseum. And I paid only 8 dinars because we pay the same price, whether you come from Morocco, Algeria and the other countries of the Maghreb-Arab, you pay the same price as the Tunisians. It's really cool. There are a bunch of levels, there are stairs that I can take to get all the way up and you have so much liberty to just explore and really take your time to do whatever you want, which is not the case in the Colosseum in Rome, which I visited just last month. It's not the same thing. So that can be positive for someone who wants to respectfully explore the site, but it can be also negative because there are a lot of graffitis and people can just trash the place. Although because this is a UNESCO World Heritage, I feel like there's much more effort put into maintaining this place and keeping it safe and clean, which it looks actually reasonably well maintained. So I think I want to explore the ground floor, but I'm going to head up first because I'm really excited to see what the view looks like from up top. I am amazed at how many levels there are. So I'm going to start exploring from the top and then make my way down, but it does feel like, you know, this is a functioning Colosseum. You can see all the pieces, you can see the seas. There are stairs to get from one level to the other. It's amazing. I can't believe that it's just still old. You want peace. Unbelievable is the word. Unbelievable. It completely skipped my mind that today is Friday and the recitation is actually Friday prayer. And I am so distracted in a positive way by the recitation that I completely forgot about where I am. I forgot about the Colosseum because I miss listening to Aden, I miss listening to recitation, I miss Friday prayers. I live in the U.S. and I don't get to experience it. Sometimes only a few times a year, sometimes even less than that. So it's so peaceful to be here because the mosque is right there. And it's just so amazing. The echo all over the place. I can stay here forever. There's barely anyone here. The few tourists that were here earlier, they left. And I compare this to my experience when I visited the Colosseum in Rome. And honestly, in Rome, there were so many people. You can barely walk without having to touch another person. And it was very restricted. So unlike this Colosseum right here in El Jem, it is very wide. You have so much freedom to explore on your own. It is well maintained. I mean, you can see the seats where spectators sat and watched the shows here in the Colosseum. It just blows my mind. And there's barely anyone here. This is a much better experience in my opinion. I am in the middle of the arena. This is surreal. I feel like a gladiator. I just need my armor and my sword. I can't believe that this is at least 2000 years old. And I can only imagine like 30,000 people sitting here, cheering, enjoying the show. This is incredible. And for this site to be in Africa and in this country, in the middle of nowhere. I mean, the road to get to El Jem. Not very impressive, but then you get to this spot and it's just mesmerizing. I think these are the doors leading to the hypogeums. That's what they are called. And that's the rooms where they usually store animals and beasts, maybe fighters before the show. And I think there's even axes to see what some of these hypogeums looked like. This is, oh my gosh. Is this real? Is this even real? There's a sign right here with some information about the Colosseum. It says that the capacity of the Colosseum was the 30,000 people. So my guess was right. I said 30,000 to 35,000. I noticed one thing about monuments in general in Tunisia. When you go to historic sites like this, there isn't a lot of information there. So unless you have a guide or you do your own research, when you go to visit sites, they don't have a lot of explanation of what you are really looking at. So maybe there's something to keep in mind to do your own research and read a bit about the history before getting to these places. But I'm gonna go inside and see. And we're in. I am just guessing. Not very sure. It could also be a room for something else because the placement is a little bit odd. They don't go directly into the arena and then just between these rooms there are actually stairs to access the amphipyta and the seating area. I almost missed this. They do actually have stairs right here to take you underground. And I was actually wondering how to get there. Wow. Where are we going? Now we're talking. We are actually underground right now. I think this is where the hypogems are. Whatever I was saying earlier that might not be true. But holy moly we are under the arena. Wow. We are now straight underneath the arena. That's where I was standing earlier. And these rooms behind me are the hypogems. I think that's what they are called and this is basically where they stored beasts, animals and even fighters before the show. This is incredible. This is the inside of another room. Right in front of the building there are a few restaurants. This is one of them where you can stop by for a meal. Because it's Friday today I'm going for some couscous with me. It comes also with vegetables. I couldn't be happier. This view is so epic. I cannot believe that I'm sitting here eating couscous in front of one of the largest colosseums in the world. It's epic. I am almost at the museum. Museum of Elgem. And you can enter with the same ticket. She's great. And it's only about the 8 to 10 minutes walk from the colosseum. So the museum is right there. And then right in front of the museum there is a café. You want to grab something to drink which I could use some tea later on. But let's check the museum first. So what's interesting about this museum it's very equi. But what's interesting is that they have a very large collection of mosaics from the Romans. And they do have a bunch of rooms with the many work of art in display. So if you are into arts and this form of art in particular this will be a nice place to visit for sure. Some beheaded statues. Romans statues. Probably. Most likely. Actually for sure. Little garden with columns. I just bought myself some apples and mandarins on my way to the Luage station. There's a lot of fresh produce and I'm always excited about that. Got myself some to snack on later for the day but I will wrap up my adventure for today. Get to the Luage, get back to Sousa and I will see you guys in the next one.