XLVIX Bekalta (Thapsus)

What3words –  vacating.suitcase.elapsed

Construction - 1st Century AD

Capacity - 16,000

Visited September 2025

Obscure and unvisited. Intact foundations of an amphitheatre comprising stone blocks so substantial they were presumably too large and heavy to cart away and re-use.

Thapsus was founded by the Phoenicians. It served as a waypoint on the trade routes between the Strait of Gibraltar and Phoenicia

Julius Caesar defeated Metellus Scipio and the Numidian king Juba I at the costly 46 BC Battle of Thapsus.

Thapsus subsequently became a Roman colony in the province of Byzacena.

Thapsus was the site of one of the Roman Empire's greatest harbor moles, a huge concrete and stone breakwater extending almost a kilometer from shore

amphitheatre, whose length, extending from N.E. to S.W., measures two hundred and forty feet, and that of the arena one hundred and fifty, whilst its greatest breadth is two hundred, and that of the latter one hundred and ten feet; a small part of the wall inclosing the arena, and faced with large wrought stones, and the inclined supports of the stairs leading to the first gallery still remain. Temple
The ruin of an amphitheatre is situated south of the aqueduct. The arena is farmed, the seating section does not exist any longer.