The archaeological site of Makthar (Mactaris) is situated on a high plateau in central western Tunisia, on the northern edge of the Tunisian ridge. Originally a 5th-century BC Numidian settlement, it evolved into a well-preserved Roman city, featuring a forum, baths, and a triumphal arch. Later, it became a Byzantine fortress and bishopric, but experienced a decline in the 11th century. Today, the site showcases its Punic-Numidian, Roman, and Byzantine history through visible ruins and a local museum containing various artefacts.
Mactaris was built on the edge of a plateau at an altitude of 900 meters between the Ouzafa and Saboun wadi valleys. Its location on an easily defensible site illustrates its primitive military vocation. The presence of Libyan and Punic inscriptions proves that Mactaris was already a very substantial city before the arrival of the Romans. Following the fall of Carthage in 146 BC, many Punic refugees arrived here, as the town lay beyond the borders of Roman Africa. However, in 46 BC, it was incorporated into the newly established Roman province of Africa Nova. The Punic and Roman populations coexisted peacefully, and the process of Romanisation took about 200 years to complete.
The city flourished during the 2nd century AD, particularly beginning in the reign of Trajan, at a time when Mactaris was still a civitas. It was later elevated to the status of municipium under Antoninus Pius and became a colony between 176 and 180 under the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. This status granted Roman citizenship to its inhabitants. An inscription from AD 198 (AE 1949, 0047) identifies the settlement as Colonia Aelia Aurelia Mactaris. In the 3rd century AD, the city became the centre of a Christian bishopric and experienced the Donatist schism in the 5th century AD. During Diocletian’s reorganisation of the empire, Mactaris was incorporated into the province of Byzacena.
The decline of Mactaris began with the Vandal invasions, which started in AD 439. During the reign of Justinian, forts were built in existing structures, including the Great Baths. The city’s decline was ultimately sealed in the 11th century with the arrival of the Hilalian tribes.
The site is one of the largest in Tunisia and contains a significant portion that has yet to be explored archaeologically. Similar to Bulla Regia, the region’s relative remoteness and the challenges in integrating into communication networks may have contributed to this lack of exploration. A small museum on-site displays various archaeological artefacts that have been discovered there, including Neo-Punic funerary stelae (1st–3rd century BC) and a . Outside the archaeological park are a Punic pyramidal mausoleum, similar to the mausoleum of Atban at Dougga, as well as the Temple of Apollo.
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The Christian Basilica of Rutilius, constructed on the site of a sanctuary dedicated to Saturn.The partially restored amphitheatre, built in the 2nd century AD. None of the seating has survivedThe Temple of Hathor Miskar, a local divinity originally taken from the Egyptian pantheon of gods. It was first erected in the 1st century BC and then reconstructed in the 2nd century AD. It contained Neo-Punic inscriptions listing the 32 generous patrons who paid for the temple.The House of Venus, a Roman villa, named after the mosaic found here, which is now housed in the site’s museum.The House of Venus.The town’s market (macellum), which also has an altar to Mercury, the Roman god of shopkeepers and merchants.The New stone-paved Forum, laid out in the 2nd century AD and located at the intersection of the decumanus and cardo.The 1,500 m2 forum square was surrounded by porticoes on three sides. The Forum is enclosed by a single-arch built in 116 and dedicated to Emperor Trajan. The arch formed the entrance to the New Forum.The New Forum.The Arch of Trajan, a single-arch Roman triumphal arch built in 116 in honour of Emperor Trajan.The Arch of Trajan formed the entrance to the forum. It was erected by the proconsul of Africa, but it was paid for by the local community.On the south side of the arch, a Latin inscription is still partially legible, celebrating the conquest of the ‘Germans, Armenians and Parthians’. CIL 08, 00621
“To the Emperor Caesar Nerva Traianus, son of Divus Nerva, the best Augustus, conqueror of the Germans, Armenians and Parthians, Pontifex Maximus, who received the tribunician power for the twelfth time and the imperial acclamation for the twelfth time and was consul for the sixth time, (this arch) was donated by the Proconsul Caecilius [F]austinus by decision of the decurions from public funds (…) .”
The 5th-century AD Vandal Basilica of Hildeguns with three naves and Byzantine tombs. It was named after one of their kings.The paved road leading to the Old Forum and the Western Baths.The Great Southern Baths, inaugurated in AD 199 during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, were later converted into a Byzantine fortress. The baths covered a total area of approximately 4,400 m², with 225 m² dedicated to the sole frigidarium.The northern colonnaded hall of the Great Southern Baths, adorned with a labyrinth mosaic.The northern colonnaded hall of the Great Southern Baths.Fragments of a large inscription in front of the Great Southern Baths.Dedication to Antoninus Pius (CIL VIII, 622), dated AD 157 (trib pot XX) in front of the Great Southern Baths.The Schola Juvenum, a well-preserved building from the Severan period interpreted as the meeting place of the city’s juvenile college, a kind of clubhouse and training school for young men found in Roman cities.The interior of the Schola Juvenum. The building was financed by Julius Piso and constructed on the site of a Flavian sanctuary dedicated to Mars. The remains include a courtyard with porticoes, rooms for worship to the north, sanitary facilities to the east, and a meeting room to the west.The layout of the Schola Juvenum follows the Hellenistic tradition of the quadrangular palestra with peristyle.The Schola Juvenum was modified several times and turned into a pagan basilica where funerary rites were performed, and two gravestones from the nearby necropolis were utilised as altars. Eventually, in the 4th century AD, it was turned into a church during the reign of Diocletian.The intersection of two paved roads.The paved road leading to the Old Forum from the west.The Western Baths, built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and later converted into a church.The interior of the Western Baths.The paved road leading to the New Forum from the west.
The ruins outside the archaeological park
The Arch of Septimius Severus.The ruins of the Temple of Apollo.The Neo-Punic mausoleum.
The Makthar Museum
Roman mosaic adorned with numerous animal motifs and Punic and Neo-Punic ex-votos and funerary stelae.Makthar Museum’s garden.Makthar Museum’s garden.
Bulla Regia is one of the most archaeologically important Roman towns in North Africa, located approximately 8km northeast of Jendouba, on the edge of Tunisia’s fertile Great Plains. It is a city shaped by Numidian, Punic, Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic influences. Bulla Regia flourished due to its rich agricultural wealth, strategic location, and integration into the Mediterranean trade network. Today, the site is renowned for its unique underground villas, which were built by the Romans in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD as a means to escape the fierce heat of the Tunisian sun and are decorated with mosaics.
Bulla Regia originated as a Numidian city influenced by Carthage. In 202 BCE, the Roman general Scipio Africanus captured the town, and it later became a royal residence for the Numidian king Massinissa. After the fall of Carthage, Bulla Regia was annexed to Africa Nova in 46 BCE following the defeat of Juba I. Under Roman rule, the city flourished, receiving municipal privileges from Julius Caesar and later becoming a colony under Hadrian, officially named Colonia Aelia Hadriana Augusta Bulla Regia.
Bulla Regia’s prosperity came from the fertile Great Plains, which supported wealthy elites who rose to equestrian and senatorial ranks. Bulla Regia was richly adorned with monuments, statues, and mosaics, while its streets, drainage systems, and public spaces reflected the Roman urban planning tradition. Notably, its private houses featured underground rooms, which were adapted to the hot climate. Many of these houses survive with their mosaics in situ, protected by the earth above them.
In late antiquity, Bulla Regia prospered under Vandal and Byzantine rule, as shown by coin hoards, fortified structures, and churches. Christianity was established, with bishops noted as early as the 3rd century, and St. Augustine preached there in 399. The presence of churches, cemeteries, and mosaics indicates a vibrant community that lasted into the 7th century AD. However, the city declined due to “ruralization,” with limited finds from the Islamic period. Bulla Regia was fully abandoned by the late 12th century, after which Jendouba became the new regional centre.
The site also includes temples, baths, a fort and a market square, but it is the houses which are the main attraction. Each of the villas has been named after the mosaics that were found within them. Some of these beautiful mosaics are still in situ, while others have been moved to museums such as the Bardo in Tunis.
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The East Temple and the colossal Memmian Baths.Although they have suffered from earthquake damage over the years, these ruins reveal the sheer scale of the baths, which included changing rooms, a gymnasium, and the frigidarium.Apse in the Memmian Baths decorated with a shell mosaic.Inscription (ILAfr 454) on a statue base praising Julia Memmia “because of the extraordinary magnificence of her work, the baths, by which she beautified her native city and contributed to the health of the citizens”. Dated 3rd century AD.The Memmian Baths were named after Julia Memmia, daughter of local Roman consul Gaius Memmius Fidus Julius Albius, as she paid for their construction. Julia dedicated the baths to the wife of Septimius Severus, the first African Roman emperor who ruled the Roman Empire in AD 193–211.The west-east main artery that connected the Memmian Baths to the theatre.The Augusteum lining the west-east main artery. It was a large, closed building constructed to the glory of Septimius Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta, with various rooms arranged around a garden.The Augusteum was 85 m long and 65 m wide. It had a semicircular library, exedra square, a cella and baths.The Temple of Isis, built in the 1st century AD and repaired in the second half of the 2nd century AD.The Temple of Isis is rectangular in shape and was built on a podium and bordered to the west by a Numidian wall. A staircase of seven steps gives access to a cella preceded by a pronaos. A row of six columns flanks the temple on the east and west sides.Dedication to Isis (AE 2005,1690) in front of the podium of the Temple of Isis by P. Aelius Privatus and his wife, Cocceia Bassa. Dated AD 131 – 170. Isidi Aug(ustae) sac(rum) / P(ublius) Aelius Priva/tus et Cocceia / Bassa uxor eius / aram ex vot(o) / liben(te)s animo / posuer(unt) et / ded(icaverunt)The Roman Theatre, built during the co-rule of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (AD 161–169).The theatre stands at the eastern end of the town, close to the forum, and features a 4th-century CE bear mosaic on the pavement of the orchestra.Fourth-century AD bear mosaic on the pavement of the theatre’s orchestra.The main north-south artery connecting the Roman Theatre to the Forum.The Market in the Forum, a rectangular courtyard with paving, surrounded by porticoes and accessed through three doors. There were a total of 12 shops, with six situated in the northern area and six located in the southern area. It was built in the 3rd century AD over earlier remains dated to 150-50 BC.The Basilica in the Forum. The public building featured an apse at both ends and was constructed on a platform accessed by a staircase with four steps.The Temple of Apollo, located within the Forum and to the north of the Capitol, was likely built during the reign of Emperor Tiberius in AD 34-35. Excavations have yielded significant artefacts, including a large statue of Apollo now displayed at the Bardo Museum in Tunis.Measuring 26.5m in length and 24m in width, this building, dedicated to Apollo, the city’s protecting deity, features an African-Roman type plan with an open-air courtyard and worship rooms where the various deities were venerated.The paved street leading to the residential area featuring underground houses designed to provide relief from the intense summer heat.The House of the Hunt, a wealthy Roman residence named after the partial hunting scene mosaic, is one of the most striking. The sixteen columns of reddish stone resting on stone bases were dug from the luxurious marble quarries of Simitthus (modern-day Chemtou).Each room of the House of the Hunt had light entering through a light shaft or the open patio. It also had a separate double toilet and bathroom (unusual at the time) as well as private baths.The underground peristyle of the lower floor of the House of the Hunt featuring Corinthian columns.The House of the New Hunt. It had rooms arranged around a peristyle that rested partly on cisterns. An above-ground hunting mosaic, from which the house derives its name, has been left in situ, depicting the owner and his servants on a hunt.In-situ mosaic from the House of the New Hunt depicting the owner and his servants on a hunt. The scene is surrounded by a beautiful, inhabited scroll frame, which includes animals (hare, wild boar, dog, gazelle).The subterranean five-column hall of the House of the New Hunt has a geometric floor mosaic.The House of the New Hunt.In-situ mosaic in the House of Amphitrite depicting Venus being carried ashore by a pair of Ichthyocentaurs (fish-tailed centaurs) following her birth from the sea foam.Mosaic floor depicting a female character in the corridor of the House of Amphitrite. Dated to the 3rd century AD.The residential area has a complex of five houses with underground features.The House of Fishing with columns dug from the luxurious marble quarries of Simitthus (Chemtou).The house, the earliest of the villas, features a separate double toilet and bathroom, along with private baths. It also includes an underground colonnaded courtyard. A small room contains a fishing-themed mosaic.The subterranean House of Treasure. The house was so named due to the hoard of 7th-century AD Byzantine coins that archaeologists uncovered here in 1942. The large dining room is decorated with a geometrically patterned mosaic; next door is a bedroom.
following hadrian photography 