Sahel · Tunisia
Mahdia
A Fatimid sea-city on a peninsula — quiet medina, blue doors, El Jem inland.
Mahdia juts out into the Mediterranean on a narrow peninsula, fortified by the Fatimid caliphs in the 10th century when it was their capital.
Its medina is unusually calm — narrow whitewashed streets, blue doors, fishing boats — and ends at the Skifa el Kahla, a massive black gate that's the only land entrance.
Inland, the governorate contains El Jem, whose Roman amphitheatre is the third-largest in the world and arguably the most impressive monument in Tunisia.