El Haouaria - Roman Caves

A few kilometers northeast of El Haouaria, on the coast, are the Roman Caves (French Grottes Romaines, Arabic Ghar el Kebir), hewn out of the sandstone cliffs which fall steeply down to the sea. The caves were formed by the quarrying of the rock by the Carthaginians and later by the Romans, and the marks of their tools can still be seen. Shafts up to 30m/100ft long were driven into the rock by slaves, and the blocks they extracted were hauled up by ropes and loaded into ships which took them direct to Carthage.

The road to the caves is easy to find. An asphalted road runs through El Haouaria, passes the marabout of the local holy man and soon afterwards degenerates into a sand track, which ends in the parking lot of a small cafe near the caves.