El Jem Amphitheatre

The Amphitheatre of El Jem is one of the largest Roman amphitheaters ever built. Indeed (depending on how you measure it) El Jem may be considered to be the third-largest ever, after the Colosseum in Rome and the destroyed amphitheater in Capua. Designed to seat a whopping crowd of 35,000 people, today El Jem is both the largest and the best-preserved Roman amphitheater in Africa.

Located in the city of El Jem (or El Djem), which was known back in Roman times as Thysdrus, El Jem Amphitheatre was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage in 1979. Hence, if you make it to the town of El Jem, you’re probably not going to miss this dramatic attraction. Although far from secret, the backstory of the construction, and the modern-day misconceptions of El Jem Ampitheatre, are little known.