Maktar - Museum

On the opposite side of the road from Bab el Ain is the small but interesting Museum of Maktar. The Museum has a fine collection of gravestones and stelae of the first century B.C. - third century A.D., some of them with Punic inscriptions and symbols (crescents, pigeons, peacocks, grapes, pomegranates, fishes, etc.). The Roman period is represented by sculpture and fragments of architecture, the Byzantine period by bronzes, oil lamps and a sixth century pavement mosaic with figures of animals and an inscription. Behind the museum are the remains of an ancient temple which was later converted into a basilica. A paved Roman road runs past an amphitheater, the arena of which has been preserved, to an eminence from which can be seen, some distance away, the well preserved Arch of Trajan.