Travel Back in Time on this Tunisian Train Journey

Before the Greeks and the Romans, the Phoenicians and the Byzantines, the Berbers controlled the North African shoreline. Sfax's breezy avenues and Frankish facades sit atop an ancient Berber stronghold, Taparura. Merged with a neighboring Phoenician sprawl, Thanae, the city traded hands between antiquity's Mediterranean superpowers for centuries. Nowadays, head straight to Thyra, a Sfax suburb, to roam the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman settlement, including its houses and basilica.

Sousse’s oldest sector is shrouded by gold mottled casbah walls, and it's snaking shopping streets feel entirely secluded from the modern city. Tucked away within the boundary walls is an incredibly well-stocked and often remarkably empty museum. Vestiges of the Roman homes that once sat all through the city are preserved here, too, as well as glimpses of the countless layers of catacombs that plunge deep beneath the medina. Visit the Sousse Archaeological Museum on a walking tour to see sprawling mosaics, meticulously preserved, depicting mythic sights such as the severed head of Medusa and drunken Dionysus.

Sousse is also a great place to pause and to base yourself for journeys into Tunisia’s interior. Extend your stay at this stop to take a trip out to one of Africa’s most spectacular Roman ruins, the El Jem colosseum. Or, to explore the region’s earliest Islamic heritage, take a day trip to the great mosque of Kairoun.

The city’s sand-stained citadel, the Ribat of Monastir, has stood sentinel over the Tunisian shore since 769 AD. The fortress is a quintessential feature of Arab Conquest architecture, the largest surviving point of strategic defense against marauding Mediterranean empires; its tower, which still stands, provided an ideal lookout to scout for impending Byzantine invasions. Walking the rim of its exterior walls, travelers can envision the purple flags that once fluttered across the now calm seas. Prior to the 8th-century Arab Conquest, the city was known to the Romans as Ruspina, a spoil of the Punic Wars. Learn more about its layered history and remarkable architecture on a historical walking tour of the medina.

Insider tip: Not every train stops here, so check the schedule in advance—the evening option arrives at 8.20pm.

Tunis has, for centuries, been one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities of the Islamic world, in addition to being the site of one of the most important seats of the ancient world. Today, the medina’s washed stone alleys are flanked by shisha smokers on spindling chairs, the sweet smoke mingling with the scent of extra-strong coffee. Exploring the covered souks and open-air markets, you could lose days in its interior. Opt for a guided tour of the walled city to learn about its significance in Islam’s golden era, before heading to once–ancient city of Carthage.

Although it played a pivotal role in African and European history, and was the capital of the Carthaginian Empire, Carthage is now a suburb of Tunis. Its earliest iteration was largely destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, and then again by the Umayyads in 698 AD, but its foundations remain. A guide is essential here, so take a half day tour of the site from the city center.

Pale pink, pastel green, and periwinkle, the look of scenic Bizerte is relatively modern. It’s younger, at least, than the fortress it leads into. Here, high, crenelated kasbah walls shroud a maze of narrow, slinking alleys. Though the area was settled as a seaport since 350 BC, the medina was established during the Arab conquest and went on to become a base for the piratical Barbary privateers, the corsairs. A short journey from the train’s terminating station of Tunis, Bizerte can be reached on a tour from the capital.