The Baptismal Font from Bekalta

At last a day of culture. We took a taxi into the Medina at Sousse. Trust it to be one of the hottest days we've encountered wellintothe early thirties. We looked round the Grand Mosque and the Rabat again and did not notice any major changes though it was somewhat quieter than when we visited a few years ago. Then we made our way very slowly to what used to be known as the Kasbah Museum and is now just called the Archaeological Museum of Sousse. Unfortunately it is right at the top of the Medina, so we arrived there very hot and sweaty. It used to be organised as rooms around a central courtyard but now the mosaics are in an air-conditioned basement, soooo lovely and cool. They are brilliantly display with interpretations in Arabic,French and English which all helps. The Medusa which is one of the most famous of the mosaics even has a massive mirror angled above it so you can photograph it easily.

One of the exhibits which was not there when we last visited is the Baptismal Font from Bekalta of theByzantine era which was found accidentally in 1993 when they were digging a building site with a JCB. Unusually the whole of the font has been preserved and quite how they managed to move it and recreate in the museum I can imagine as it is formed from 1000s of tiny mosaic pieces but it is very impressive andI hope I have managed to capture it in my blip