Maktar, Tunisia

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Kairouan; bus station (Gare Routière) in the market square.

Situation and characteristics

The little market town of Maktar, founded only in 1887, is commandingly situated on a high plateau in the High Tell, the hills of central Tunisia. The surrounding countryside is Tunisia's largest corn-growing area after the Medjerda valley, and in spite of the altitude olives also flourish here. Situated between the uplands and the steppe, Maktar is an important market center (market on Mondays).

The principal attraction of Maktar, in a beautiful setting, is the site of Roman Mactaris, which ranks with Dougga and Bulla Regia as one of the most important Archeological sites in Tunisia.

History

A Numidian settlement was established here in the second century B.C., in a commanding situation which offered safety from attack and enabled it to control the routes between the uplands and the steppe; and the abundant summer rainfall guaranteed a water supply for the adjoining valley.

After the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. many Punic refugees came to Maktar, since the town, by now fortified, lay outside the Roman province of Africa (until 46 B.C., when it was incorporated in the new province of Africa Nova). The remains of a tophet and numerous funerary stelae and Punic inscriptions are evidence of an enduring Libyan/Punic influence. As in other towns, the two communities - the old-established Libyan/Punic civitas and the Roman pagus - lived in harmony side by side. It took almost 200 years until the Romanisation of Mactaris (as the Romans called the town) was complete. In the reign of Trajan, at the beginning of the second century A.D., it was given the status of a municipium; and in 180, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, it became a colonia and its inhabitants were given Roman citizenship. Maktaris now controlled some 60 villages in the surrounding area and became one of the wealthiest cities in the province. Its trade in corn, olives, livestock and textiles flourished as never before, and this promoted much new building.

In the first half of the third century Mactaris took part in the revolt headed by Gordian against the reintroduction of the tax on olive oil; but - unlike El Djem, then the most prosperous city in the Sahel, which was ruined - it managed to recover after the repression of the rising. It also survived the Vandal raids (439-534) and thereafter was fortified by the Byzantines.

After the Arab invasion the city's decline set in, and was finally consummated by the raids of the Beni Hilal nomads (1050).

The town was re-founded by the French colonial authorities in 1887 as an administrative and market center. Excavation of the ancient site began in 1914, but so far only a third of the very extensive area of Roman Mactaris has been brought to light.

The entrance to the site is through the gardens of the Museum, on the main Kairouan-Le Kef road.