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Written by: Richard

07 May 2002

The museum is just four kilometers out from the centre of Tunis (the capital city) on the light rail. Everyone knows where it is, so if you get lost, just ask.

You will be astonished at the number and quality of the mosaics that have been collected from the various Roman sites around Tunisia. The building itself is just as amazing - an old ottoman style palace with beautiful plastered ceilings and tiling, marble staircases and lovely grounds.

We spend the whole day at The Bardo. The tour groups come and go around us for their fleeting visit.

But our itinerary allows us the time to study the expertise involved in putting these artworks together. There are wall mosaics, floor mosaics, and gravestone mosaics. They depict all sorts of themes from myths to pictures of everyday life.

Some of the exhibition areas in the Bardo museum are devoted to displaying artefacts from particular areas or regions, others have a more thematic offering. But they are all stunning. We were amazed at the size of the mosaics, some covering walls two stories high.

An interesting highlight of the museum is a floor devoted to the display of articles found in a recently discovered ancient ship wreck.

You can see some photos and read more about Tunisia at http://travelsnapz.tripod.com