The Bardo Museum

Roman North Africa was rich, and its wealthy built floors that have survived better than almost anything else they left, and the Bardo, the second largest museum in Africa after the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, holds one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world. It has been housed since 1888, when it opened as the Alaoui Museum, in a former palace of the beys on the site of a fifteenth-century Hafsid palace, whose carved and tiled Ottoman interiors make an unlikely and rather wonderful setting for room after room of pavements lifted from villas across the country: hunting scenes, sea gods and fish of identifiable species, the poet Virgil seated between two muses, and vast floors covering entire walls. Beyond the mosaics there is Punic and Numidian material from before Rome, finds from Carthage, and a room of objects recovered from a shipwreck off Mahdia carrying Greek art. It is a large collection and rewards half a day rather than an hour.

The main sights

• The mosaic galleries - room after room of Roman floors from villas across Tunisia.
• The Virgil mosaic - the poet seated between two muses, the museum's signature piece.
• The Mahdia shipwreck room - Greek bronzes and marbles recovered from the sea.
• The palace itself - the carved and tiled Ottoman rooms housing the collection.

When to go

October to May is the pleasant half of the year in Tunis; the museum is indoors and air-conditioned, which makes it a good option in the summer heat. It closes on Mondays. Mornings are quieter, before groups arrive from the coastal resorts.

Things to know

It is a very large collection displayed in a fairly traditional way, and mosaic after mosaic can blur without a guide or an audio guide to pick out what matters. Labelling is mostly in French and Arabic. The building has been reorganised and partly closed at various points in recent years, so check what is open before a special trip.

Nearby

The Tunis medina is a short ride away; Carthage and Sidi Bou Said are along the coast.

Key facts