Mahdia

We do not know whether this ancient Phoenician harbour corresponds to Gummi, a Roman city in Africa, whose naviculars were represented in Ostia. Anyway, in Mahdia, today, the archaeological samples rather relate to the Punic, medieval and modern eras. From the Punic period, Mahdia has inherited a Carthaginian " coton ", i.e. a dug out port, which was later used, once again, in the Fatimids' epoch.
For having been the capital of the Shiites, Mahdia does not lack medieval vestiges; from this period one may point out :
° The palace of El-Quaim, a litte palatial compound still under excavation;
° Tha Skiffa el-Khala, a kind of archway which leads to the Fatimid city;
° The Great Mosque, a sanctuary initially built by Obeid Allah al-Mahdi between 916 and 921; after its rehabilitation, this monument certainly lost its stamp; but its shape remained the same.
° The tower called bordj Erras or el-bordj el-Kébir; it is a fortress built on an upland, on the highest part of the peninsula. This early sixteenth century monument was enlarged by the Turks.
Mahdia has an attractive museum exhibiting besides beautiful artefacts such as mosaics, antique and islamic ceramics, monetary treasures from Byzantine period, found in the region of either Bararus (Rougga) or in El-Chabba. The museum also has an ethnographic aspect as it displays traditional clothes as well as weaving looms...
In addition, Mahdia is associated with under water excavations which, carried out off the city, in 1908, 1913 and 1948, delivered an impressive marble and bronze collection of Grecian origin. The collection is the result of a shipwreck which occurred towards the end of the first century B.C., following an order placed by some well-to-do person of rank from Italy or Africa. These artefacts are now exhibited in the museum of Bardo, in Tunis.