Tunisia offers more than 'Star Wars'

Editor's note: Local world traveler Dennis Weber recently returned from Tunisia, a trip he chronicles in the following story.

Thanks to George Lucas and the government of Tunisia, it is perfectly feasible to visit the "Star Wars" village of Tataouine in the morning and take a camel trek across the Sahara Desert in the afternoon.

On a recent 15-day trip to Tunisia with Overseas Adventure Travel, I was able to accomplish both of these activities.

George Lucas shot major portions of his "Star Wars" movies in Tunisia, and through an agreement with the Tunisian government, left most of the movie sets standing as tourist attractions that have been very successful in attracting tourists from all over the world. Lucas was so impressed with Tunisia and its people that he adopted the name of a local town, Tataouine, for one of his fictional planets.

The people of Tunisia like to refer to their country as the Switzerland of the Arab world. They are probably the most secular of the Arab countries and also the smallest nation in North Africa. While sandwiched between Algeria and Libya, two volatile neighbors that could change direction at any time, the people of Tunisia have learned the value of tact and diplomacy. "We want to remain neutral in all things," said Ali Khammassi, our Tunisian tour guide.

It is this strong desire to remain neutral and peaceful (Tunisia has one of the smallest standing armies in the Arab world), coupled with some of the world's best beaches, that has led to the country being a hot spot for European tourism for the past 20 years.

Any trip to Tunisia will start in its capital, Tunis, a modern city of roughly 2 million with a new and spectacular airport. Driving into the city from the airport, one name jumps out more often than any other: Hannibal. It seems like every other restaurant, auto parts store and jewelry shop is named after the famous Carthaginian general.

Tunis has an extremely long and tumultuous history. It was founded by the ancient Numidians, whose descendents are called Berbers today. Then it was ruled by the Carthaginians, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Byzantines and finally by Islamists. The French arrived in 1885 and turned Tunisia into a French "protectorate," which is simply another word for a colony.

Independence was finally achieved in 1956, but the French left a lasting impression, as every bakery in Tunisia makes absolutely first-rate French bread and French is one of the three official languages, along with Arabic and Berber.

To say that Tunisia is positively littered with the ruins of countless ancient cities is probably an understatement. The area spent centuries under Roman rule and it was so prosperous that it became known as the "bread basket of Rome." As a result of all this success, many people in this area became extremely rich under Roman rule.

How rich? How about flushable toilets in the house and tiled hot tubs with both hot and cold running water? All of this luxury was 500 years before the birth of Christ. And naturally, if you are that rich, a great deal of artistic ornamentation would go into your home, resulting in the most stunning Roman mosaics to be found anywhere in the world. Many of these fantastic mosaics have been collected in the Bardo museum in Tunis, but there are literally thousands still existing untouched in Roman and Phoenician ruins around the country. Unfortunately frescos, the painted murals in most Roman households, have failed to survive the ages, as in most cases walls and ceilings collapse first.

From Tunis we traveled to Dougga, the best-preserved ancient Roman city in North Africa. At its peak more than 10,000 people inhabited this city and it contains one of the largest theaters in the entire Roman world. Abandoned after being sacked by the Vandals, it was covered with dirt and debris until the 1950s, when excavation began. Before the digging could begin, there was an entire village living on top of the ruins that had to be relocated to the valley floor in new housing provided by the government. Today, the site is only about 40 percent uncovered, with the remainder of the area still in privately owned olive groves.

While Dougga had a major theater as an attraction, the arts may not have been the favorite entertainment of the Romans. In El-Djem stands the third-largest amphitheater in the Roman world, an arena of blood, pain and suffering. It is wonderfully restored and a visitor can plainly see the caged areas underground where they kept both wild animals such as lions, and lion food, such as slaves. It must have made a wonderful afternoon out with the kids and a picnic lunch.

It is impossible to avoid being served either olives or dates in Tunisia. Both are major export products and widely recognized as among the finest in the world. No great fan of dates, I found the dates of Tunisia to be delicious, even though we were served them more frequently than I would have liked. But I love olives, especially the oil-cured dark ones and they were fantastic. I was literally eating olives for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In general, the food in Tunisia was extremely good, especially the lamb dishes. Almost everything was served with couscous, which is used throughout North Africa as a staple.

Of course, no visit to Tunisia would be complete without spending a night camped out in the Sahara Desert. Our campsite was located far enough out in the desert that it took us four hours of driving in four-wheel-drive vehicles to reach it. The tents were large and luxurious, with Berber carpets covering the floors and hot showers were available in a restroom facility.

Actually, it was so cold that only one brave soul dared the showers and most of us spent as much time as we could wrapped in burnooses while sitting by the fire. I liked my burnoose so much that I bought one and brought it home with me. So now I can look like a Berber nomad in the Arizona desert, or just some dorky old white guy trying to look like a Jedi knight. Take your choice.

The last major site we visited before leaving Tunisia was the hilltop town of Chenini which contained one of the ancient Ksar structures. These were designed as half grain storage facilities, half fort. They were meant to protect the precious harvests in the coming year. These huge beehive shaped structures dotted southern Tunisia and helped protect the crops from raids by enemies.

In any travel story, it is always difficult to decide what to include and what to omit. I've had to leave out the story of the cigarette dealer in the middle of nowhere who rode up on a bicycle and offered us American cigarettes at $20 per carton, especially smuggled in from Libya. No one on the bus smoked.

Or the whole hour we spent with a retired Imam in the oldest Mosque in Tunisia, while he gracefully answered every question we could possibly ask about Islam. I am ashamed to say the man seemed to know a great deal more about our country than we did about his.

Tunisia was a wonderful experience. The people were warm and friendly and our guide, Ali, went to great lengths to find anything we asked him about, including an ancient donkey-powered olive press that has probably been in use since the time of Christ. I guarantee you won't have those kind of adventures at the local amusement park.