Makthar

Makthar stands at around nine hundred metres in the high plains, which makes it cold in winter and bearable in summer, and it began as a Numidian town before becoming Roman. The Arch of Trajan of 116 stands more or less complete at the entrance to the forum, and around it are the great baths, a Numidian mausoleum, a Byzantine fort built out of reused Roman blocks, and the schola juvenum, a youth association building later turned into a church.

Background

Maktar sits around 140 kilometres southwest of Tunis, with El Kef 60 kilometres away to the northwest. The Numidians founded the site in the 3rd century BC, chosen to control the trade routes linking Sbeitla, Kairouan and El Kef. It gained free city status in 46 BC, under Julius Caesar, became a Roman colony in AD 146, and later belonged to the province of Byzacena as the seat of a Christian bishop. The paved forum was laid out ca 116 AD under Trajan, while the forum of the local population lay 50m to the southwest. French excavations started in 1914 and grew to a large scale from 1944. The present town had 13,576 people in 2014.

Source: Wikipedia, "Maktar"

Highlights

• The Arch of Trajan - a triumphal arch of 116 standing nearly complete.
• The great baths - a large bath complex with surviving vaulting and floors.
• The Numidian mausoleum - a pre-Roman tomb monument on the site.
• The Byzantine fort - a fortress built from reused Roman masonry.

When to go

April to October is comfortable; the altitude makes winter genuinely cold and often wet. Spring brings flowers across the plateau. The site is open daily.

Good to know

It is remote and the journey from anywhere is long. Winter here is cold and windy, which visitors expecting North African heat find surprising. Facilities in the town are basic.

Nearby

Haidra is southwest, and Kairouan is east.