Mahdia, El Jem and Sfax

This stretch of the Sahel breaks into three stops. El Jem is Tunisia's great Roman amphitheatre, seen in half a day. Mahdia is the beach town to stay in, with a medina on a peninsula. Sfax and the Kerkennah islands opposite lie further south and see fewer visitors. All three are linked by road and rail.

El Jem, the amphitheatre of Thysdrus

The El Jem amphitheatre was built between 238 and 250 in the Roman town of Thysdrus. It measures 147.90 m by 122.20 m and stands 36 m high, ranking third or fourth among the amphitheatres of the Roman world. UNESCO listed it in 1979. Visitors walk the tiers and the passages beneath the arena.

• Hours: 7:30 am to 5:30 pm in winter and until 6:30 pm in summer, 8 am to 5 pm during Ramadan, local time.
• Ticket: 20 Tunisian dinars (TND), about €6, since 1 April 2026, rising to TND 30, about €9, from 1 January 2027. It includes the museum.
• El Jem Museum, in a Roman house built around a peristyle, displays mosaics found at Thysdrus.

Each summer the amphitheatre hosts the El Jem International Symphonic Music Festival; the 39th edition ran from 11 July to 15 August 2026. Our sites and museums guide explains the 2027 price rise.

A guided visit to El Jem from Sousse or Monastir starts at about €35 per person; a day trip from Mahdia covering Kairouan, El Jem and Monastir at about €68.

Mahdia, the Fatimid peninsula

Mahdia was the caliphal city of the Fatimids, the dynasty that ruled Ifriqiya in the 10th century. Its medina fills a narrow peninsula.

• Skifa el Kahla is the monumental gateway to the old caliphal city; its vaulted passage now houses the souk for wedding clothes.
• The Great Mosque, founded in 916, has no minaret and is known for its monumental porch.
• Place du Caire, the seaside cemetery and the old Punic harbour cut into the rock lie towards the tip.
• Borj el Kebir, a fortress built in the late 16th century for the Ottoman garrison on the ruins of the Mahdi's palace, opens daily; TND 8, about €2.40.
• Mahdia Museum shows Roman mosaics, Byzantine gold coins and the town's bridal costume. Closed on Mondays; TND 8.

Mahdia has woven silk since at least the 12th century, when the geographer al-Idrisi described its cloth. Workshops in the medina still make fabrics striped with gold and silver thread, scarves and foutas, the Tunisian bath wrap.

Outside town, the tourist zone lines up its hotels along a golden sandy beach, with diving and thalasso. The sea is above 23 °C from June to October and close to 28 °C in August; average highs run from 17 °C in January to 31 °C in August. On the water, a two- to four-hour pirate-boat cruise leaves Mahdia from about €35, and half-day trips with lunch go to the Kuriat islands.

Sfax, the merchants' medina

Sfax is 146 km from Monastir Airport, about 2 hours by motorway, and 10 km from its own airport, Sfax-Thyna. Its medina is entirely enclosed by crenellated medieval ramparts with monumental gates, and has been on UNESCO's tentative list, the step before inscription, since 2012.

• Inside the walls: the 9th-century Great Mosque, the minaret of Sidi Amar Kammoun, the craft souks and the fish market.
• Dar Jallouli, the 17th-century house of a family of shipowners, is now the museum of popular arts and traditions: carved stone friezes, tiles, headdresses, furniture and reverse glass paintings. Open 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, closed on Mondays; TND 5, about €1.50.
• The kasbah now houses a museum of traditional architecture.
• Outside the walls, the French protectorate town has "Arabisance" façades: minaret-like towers, arched windows and tile friezes.

Sfax is also a pastry town, known for kaak warqa, samsa and rose-water mlabbes, and an olive-oil one: the region produces 40% of Tunisia's olive oil, according to the tourist board. Fish comes with charmoula. In summer, the Sfax International Festival fills the open-air theatre.

The Kerkennah islands

Kerkennah is a flat archipelago facing Sfax, with fine sandy beaches and shallow water, 2 m deep on average. It is known for charfia fishing: fixed traps made of palm fronds planted in the shallows, inscribed on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list in 2020. Fishermen still sail loudes, boats with a triangular sail, and migratory birds winter on the islands. Borj el Hissar, a coastal fort on the remains of ancient Cercina, is badly dilapidated.

The Sonotrak ferry links Sfax with Sidi Youssef in about an hour, with ten sailings a day from Sfax between 4:15 am and 10 pm on the timetable in force since 1 September 2026. Car places can be booked online.

Distances from the airports

Mahdia and El Jem are 43 km apart, about 50 minutes. The Sahel metro, a regional train, runs from Monastir Airport to Mahdia; El Jem and Sfax are on the SNCFT (Tunisian national railway) main line from Tunis. Our getting around guide covers these routes.

Where to stay

Iberostar Selection Royal El Mansour is Sabaro's choice in Mahdia, on the Corniche road facing the beach. It has a thalassotherapy centre, devoted to seawater treatments, with a hammam, sauna and hydromassage pool, a pool heated in winter and the Star Camp kids' club. Expect from about €110 a night for two in March, breakfast included, plus tourist tax of TND 12 per person per night. Sabaro has not yet chosen a hotel in Sfax or Kerkennah; El Jem is easily visited from Mahdia or from Sousse.

Safety

None of the European foreign ministries Sabaro follows advises against Mahdia, El Jem, Sfax or Kerkennah. In Sfax, several racist assaults have been reported, along with tensions and anti-migrant violence in some coastal towns, which may target anyone perceived to be from sub-Saharan Africa. Many migrants leave for Europe from this coast. The "Travel advice" table on this page gives the advice for your country, and our Tunisia safety guide sets out the situation.