Halfway up, above the main entrance, rises the Pavillon du Belvédère (café; fine view from the terrace). On the S. slope of the hill, ¼ M. from the Avenue Carnot and concealed amid the thick vegetation, is the Mida, the ruin of a mosque-court brought from the souks of the Medina. Farther up is the *Pavillon de la Manouba, a freely restored Moorish garden-pavilion from the Palais de la Manouba (pp. [342], 343), with fine ornamentation in stucco and a charming view. The top of the hill affords a splendid *Panorama, especially towards evening. To the S. is the old town with the Kasba, the Manoubia Hill, and Fort Sidi Bel-Hassen; more to the right, beyond the Sebkha es-Sedjoumi, rise the distant hills of Zaghouan; to the E. lies Lake Bahira with the island of Chikly, the Ship Canal, and the little towns of Goletta and Rades, backed by the Gulf of Tunis and Cape Bon; then, more to the N.E., rise the hills of Carthage, with the cathedral and Sidi Bou-Saïd; a little to the left, in the plain, lie La Marsa and the Sebkha er-Riana; to the W. are seen the Bardo and the two aqueducts.
Adjoining the Institut Pasteur (1904), on the N. side of the Rond-Point, is the entrance to the Jardin d’Essais (adm., see p. [331]), opened in 1892, with many tropical and subtropical plants. Connected with it is the Ecole Coloniale d’Agriculture, founded in 1898.
The tramway (No. 7) runs on through olive-groves to (3 M.) the village of El-Ariana, once famed for its Hafside palace of Abu Fehr, and now noteworthy for its beautiful roses. It is a favourite resort of the Jews of Tunis, especially on Saturday afternoons, when Jewish musicians and dancers perform at the cafés.
2. A less extensive but more picturesque *View than that from the Belvedere is obtained from the hill, to the W. of the old town, on which lie the decayed Turkish forts of Bordj Flifel and Bordj Rabta (193 ft.). The shortest way to the hill is by the Rue Bab el-Allouch (Pl. B, 3; see tramway No. 3, p. [330]) and through the gate of that name. We then follow the Bardo road (comp. p. [339]), straight on, between the garden of the Hôpital Civil (Pl. A, 3, 4), on the right, and the Ecole Professionnelle Loubet (Pl. A, 4), a technical school, on the left. About 6 min. from the gate we diverge to the right by a field-road, and we reach the top in 6 min. more. Near the forts are numerous dilapidated Silos (rabta), once the bey’s granaries.
The Bardo is about 1 M. farther on, but we now return to the crossroads (see above) and follow another road to the S., leaving the village of Mélassine on the right, to the Bab Sidi Abdallah (Pl. A, 5). Close to this gate is the Château d’Eau or Reservoir (Pl. A, B, 5; visitors admitted) of the waterworks of Tunis, which was substituted in 1859–62 for the Roman aqueduct of Carthage (p. [348]). It is supplied by the main conduit from Zaghouan (p. [359]), 58½ M. long, by an auxiliary branch from the Aïn Djouggar (1276 ft.), 23 M. distant, and (since 1905) by a new branch, 50 M. long, from Djebel Bargou, which flows partly through a tunnel 4 M. in length.
3. The Manoubia Hill (240 ft.) may be reached in ¼ hr. by a road to the S. from the Bab Sidi Kassem (Pl. A, 6), a town-gate 3 min. to the S. of the reservoir. Or we may start from the Place aux Chevaux (Pl. B, 6; p. [337]), whence, near the Collège Alaoui (seminary for teachers), we have a good view of the city and of Lake Bahira, and then follow the Rue Bab el-Gorjani (Pl. B, C, 7). The hill offers a fine view, especially in the morning, of the city, Lake Bahira, the hills of Carthage and Cape Bon; at our feet lies the Sebkha es-Sedjoumi; to the S. rise the hills of La Mohamédia and Oudna, backed by the jagged mountains of Zaghouan.
4. From the Bab Alleoua (Pl. E, 7; station of tramway No. 8, p. [330]) diverge the roads to Rades (p. [363]), Hammam-Lif (p. [363]), and the Mornag (p. [358]). We ascend across the Cimetière Sidi Bel-Hassen (Pl. E, 7), the largest Mohammedan cemetery of Tunis, now desecrated and therefore open to ‘unbelievers’, to the (12 min.) Zaouïa Sidi Bel-Hassen, where we enjoy a charming view of the city and Lake Bahira. The mosque, where many of the former beys’ wives are buried, stands on the site of a cavern which was for many years inhabited by the Moroccan saint Sidi Bel-Hassen ech-Chadly, the founder of the Chadlya brotherhood. The beautiful view from the top of the hill (240 ft.), a little apart from the small Fort Sidi Bel-Hassen, resembles that from the Manoubia Hill.
5. The Bardo, the former winter-residence of the beys, lies in the fertile plain to the W. of Tunis, 1¼ M. from Bab Bou-Saâdoun (Pl. A, 2), and 2 M. from Bab el-Allouch (Pl. A, B, 3, 4; see p. [338]) or from Bab Sidi Abdallah (Pl. A, 5). Starting from the Porte de France, we may go by tramway No. 3 (p. [330]; 5 c.) to Place Bab-Souika, and thence by tramway No. 5 (15 c.) to the Bardo. About halfway we cross the Aqueduc du Bardo, originally Roman, a branch of the Carthage aqueduct (p. [348]), restored by Andalusian Moors in the 16th century.—Those who prefer to go by carriage should drive out past the Reservoir (see above), and return round the N. side of the old town, past the Feskia or Ancien Réservoir (Pl. A, 1, 2; for rain-water) and the Mohammedan Cimetière el-Bsili (Pl. B, C, 1, 2), to Bab el-Khadra (Pl. C, 2).
During the Turkish period the Bardo, like the Moroccan palaces of the present day, formed a little town by itself. It included several palaces of the beys and of the widows of deceased princes, a treasury, dwellings of the court officials, a mosque, baths, barracks, and a prison (zendala), and the whole group was enclosed by a massive rectangular wall. Most of the sadly ruined buildings have been utilized since 1900 as material for the new harbour-works. At the S. end the outer wall has disappeared. From the tramway station we enter the pretty grounds (1903) to the right. Immediately to the left is the way to the remains of the chief palace of the beys, and beyond it, on the left, to the Museum. Straight ahead rises the ruin of a domed building; beyond it are the mosque and the prison (now a reformatory for natives).