The expedition diaries Tunisia (15-28 April 2003)                               If you want to have photo or video materials about Tunisia - write us a letter.

Museum Bardo Every country can't do without its highlights worth going sightseeing. In order to follow the tradition and bon ton rules we made up our mind to examine carefully all the cultural sights on our way. One of these centers of culture is the famous Bardo Museum. This word means "garden" in a Mauritanian dialect. The two reasons pushed us to know the ropes of "the garden". First of all, the interior offers the greatest African collection of ancient mosaics. Secondly, the museum turned into a place of interest quite recently - 60 years ago. Earlier Bardo had been one of the three residences of the Tunisian bey - his Winter Palace. Have you enjoyed visiting a bey, a sultan, or a padishah? We haven't. As a result, we decided not to miss this opportunity. The exterior looks like a 16th century modest white building. Nothing imposing except for the enormous size. But the interior displays artifacts of thousand years. Ars longa, vita brevis (art is long, life is short) - stressed the ancient Romans. The halls of the Bardo Museum gather the statues found at the excavations of different Tunisian towns. (Don't forget about a great deal of ancient towns here). The company of "dug out" is very multicoloured - all along with the celestials such as Ishida, Baccus and Hercules an anonymous "lady in tunic" is attached. As follows from the tablet in the Arabic language. An attention-grabbing point: almost all statues are no headed. However, the heads are to be found on the shelves along the walls, as if in a dissecting room. What a funny idea, to have a statue with a whole set of heads. Change any of them depending on the weather, season and mood. The wide festival hall collects the widest lovingly preserved part of the mosaic - 56 square meters. This mosaic was found in the vicinities of the city of SOUSSE, cut out with great care and delivered by parts to the museum. This hall ceiling is green with gold. The green colour is chosen purposely - as a paradise sign, an Islamic sign in the Mussulman world. The other halls walls illustrate magnificent mosaics of less importance. They portray episodes of everyday routine of townspeople. You take pleasure in this simplicity, feats of heroes and gods. One can have been looking at them for so long. The guides depict precisely, who and on what occasion painted them. In fact, you come across thousand mosaics. We penetrate the next hall with hated breath. Some centuries ago Vlad would have never been let in, and Ksenyia would have never been let out, once in. This is the scrupulously observed department of the "modest" bey's residence - harem. As you know, every devout Moslem is allowed to have no more than four wives and a myriad of concubines. Not everybody can afford it, but upon his status the bey is committed to holding a harem. The hall was that place. Unfortunately, the harem staff doesn't exist any longer - there remain only ancient walls, a truly royal bed with a top-bed, a magnificent carved ceiling. And there, where the bey made love with a next concubine long time ago, now a mosaic Vergil is hung in the lovely company of the two muses - Clio and Melpomenee. The living rooms are lasted as if in the days of the former owner, even a landmark of the Islamic architecture, an inner open-aired courtyard with a fountain in the center. The windows of all the rooms located on its perimeter overlook it - bedrooms, a coffee room, a room to smoke a narghile, and sekifa, intended to get a break from summer heat here. No windows overlooking outside - as any devout Moslem, the bey rated highly solitude and a quiet private life. Frankly speeking, we notice a thrilling point: every visitor of the Bardo Museum will do perceive a discrepancy of the mere external look with the luxurious interior. Probably, this principle lies in the Islamic culture: much attention is paid to internal and spiritual, less concentration towards external and flashy. We have been gazing long enough at pieces of marble and granite sticked together ideally. We leave this museum-garden with awe. The ancient Carthage ruins lie in wait for us. Next: >>>  Carthage

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