Museum Tunisia : The House of Africa

At its apogee in 2 nd-c. And 3 rd-c. A.D; Thysdrus was one the most flourishing city in the Roman world. Its expansion was closely linked to the great prosperity of the African province within which it managed to rank second, right after the prestigious capital, Carthage.
During Antiquity, as much as today, Thysdrus was famous particularly for its huge amphitheatre, which is one of the largest and best preserved among Roman entertainment buildings. With a capacity of 30 000 spectators, it ranks third among similar monuments, following the coliseum in Rome and the Capoue amphitheatre, which is today extensively destroyed.

The city boasted several other public and private buildings, including in particular a circus for chariots and horse races, as big as Maxence’s in Rome.
Finally the importance of the city can not be better evidenced as by the historic role, of prime importance, that it played in the year AD 238, when it took the initiative, followed by Carthage and Rome, of hoisting Gordian
- who was at that time proconsul - to the position of emperor.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the archeological site of Thysdrus, covering an area of approximately 200 ha (approx.400 acres), continuously stands out with its sensational discoveries.

If one considers only private housing architecture, the site gave away throughout a period of a century about thirty houses, more or less well preserved, but which gave Tunisia one of its richest collections of mosaics. Exhibited mainly in three major museums i.e. the Bardo museum, the El Jem and the Sousse museums, they represent the finest pieces of their collections. The vestiges of some of the houses, where these luxurious pavements were discovered, were preserved and can still be seen at the site.

However the most impressive discovery ever to be made remains the house known as the House of Africa, which was unearthed during the last decade of the 20 th-c. Following an unauthorized construction attempt, at the antique city suburbs.