The Buried Roman Villas of Bulla Regia

Exploring the subterranean levels (and mosaics) of the Roman mansions in Bulla Regia, Tunisia.
Check out my other channels, @toldinstone and @toldinstonefootnotes

[@thetbird69]

It's truly awe inspiring that you can just walk down preserved steps and streets that people would have walked almost 2000 years ago

[@atlantic_love]

Yes it is :) I'll never have the luxury of being able to travel outside of the United States (too poor to do so), so these videos are the only way I can experience something like this. In this particular video I think the area we're being shown looks better than that of Pompeii.

[@chasbodaniels1744]

Had no knowledge of this place until now. What a wonderful introduction!

[@barrymoore4470]

Same here. I had never heard of this site before chancing upon this upload. Very interesting, and with its sunken rooms, perhaps unique among preserved Roman ruins.

[@luluandmeow]

What a treat to see gorgeous and well-preserved Roman archaeological remains without the crowds, you had the place to yourself and thanks to you so did your viewers. Not going to Tunisia anytime soon so thank you for your video, always excellent content

[@mikki3961]

I can imagine how beautiful it must have been in full color with all the fabric and furniture. Thank you!

[@alexos8741]

And slaves, let's not forget the slaves, white slaves in this case

[@Mabbi54]

Even in ruins these houses are beautiful. They must have been spectacular when they were in use. Thank you for taking us along!

[@xmaniac99]

A smart sustainable home from the classic era.

[@michaeldriskell2038]

Since I will never be able to afford to see these in person, I so appreciate your sharing this video of these sites !!! Amazing and stunning floors and architecture!!! Thank you so much!!!😊

[@teresadungan6485]

The ruin is beautiful. The mosaics make me want to cry the are incredibly detailed and delicate. Yet the walked these floors daily. I dreamed of a home with floors like these. Ah what a sight. Thanks for sharing your visit with us.

[@devoutsalsa]

Welcome to Tunisia. I've been to Bulla Regia. Loved it! Did you see the "this way to the brothel" sign?

[@kevinhouse7143]

There was one of those "directional" signs in Ephesus.

[@solinvictus39]

@@kevinhouse7143 Several in Pompeii as well.

[@josephchandler8358]

Love to see the red Poppy flowers bloom, just like in Rome right now.

[@hecker7000]

Thanks for sharing a glimpse into this amazing site. 🙂

[@MikeS29]

What a fantastic discovery. Thanks for sharing!

[@CampingforCool41]

Those mosaic floors are so stunning I’m in shock that you are allowed to walk on many of them. I can’t even imagine how beautiful those homes were back in the day.

[@stepps511]

This is an awe-inspiring look into the past, and we are in your debt. I find it truly inspirational that one can see up close and personal how these folks lived and the cleverness of their home design. Thank you!!

[@timeflysintheshop]

Wow! What a cool place! (No pun intended!). Thanks for another great video! 👍😁😎

[@timeflysintheshop]

@@RussianFans-vn6cj I appreciate your comment! 🙏🙏🙏

[@StarrySGH]

Thanks for sharing this with us! I might never visit that part of the world & would never have known about these awesome ruins!

[@karphin1]

So fascinating to actually see into the living spaces of the past. Wonderful mosaics!

[@felipericketts]

Wow, that was quite remarkable. Those mosaics in the house of the fish are so beautiful. Let's hope excavation resumes soon.

[@owenroche8426]

What an amazing site! Thanks for sharing

[@MH-fb5kr]

mosaics have highest level of artistic and technical craftsmanship… just stunning

[@DonariaRegia]

The use of local building materials is strongly evident, as was typical for regions physically disconnected from the empire, unless a city was the birthplace of emperors. Then no expense was spared and no distance too great to import the very best. In their prime those cities would have been nothing less than astounding. We have nothing contemporary to compare with, an entire city built for one man.

[@JAdams-jx5ek]

Thank you!

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

Gracious living two millennia ago, a beautiful story told in, and by, stone . . .

[@aldosigmann419]

I really enjoy these more obscure sites not swarming with tourist hordes. Just scratching the surface! Great about the potential as well for future discoveries there to be made as well - one can only wonder what amazing stuff there yet to be found....

[@RizzstrainingOrder66]

really beautiful region, thank you for the great video

[@charissemnotita2368]

You saved the best for last: House of Venus mosaic is captivating to say the least👍

[@Barisxoxo]

Lovely place!

[@felixtrapani5646]

I actually toured this in 2005, it was impressive to see how they lived in the heat....

[@jefftarwood4594]

Thank you for this. It’s great to

[@macpduff2119]

I was raised in an Italian section of the NE Bronx. In the 1950's it was common for my Italian neighbors to move to their cooler basements in Summer. They had small kitchens there for cooking, and dinning was done outdoors in their back yards. It was a sensible way to live.. May I add that the light wells in the wonderful villas shown here also served to suck hot air out when the sun went down.

[@evangelieabs]

thks,we would otherwise never had heard about these magnificent houses .❤

[@khalidalali186]

Thanks!

[@markmuller7962]

Incredibile beautifully preserved stuff!

[@markmuller7962]

@@RussianFans-vn6cj get lost

[@bobfrog4836]

This was one of the places I didn't go when I was in Tunisia a few years back. Hopefully you got to go to Dougga, Sbeitla and El Djem while you were there! I saw some of the most impressive mosaics in Tunis at the Bardo and Sousse.

[@brianmckeever5280]

Interesting! Thank you.

[@larsrons7937]

Thanks for the tour. An unusual and interesting site.

[@kiely4561]

What a find that must have been

[@CraftClash]

Those mosaics are incredible

[@18Ty]

So this is where the channel is

[@sawahtb]

I'd live there, it's a dream.

[@ForbiddenHistoryLIVE]

THANK YOU

[@johnbrown4568]

Well presented. Thank you for posting...

[@alm9368]

Impressive.

[@patricktheplumber5482]

They must have mass produced tile amazing the last building had Roman swastika’s tiled in the floor absolutely amazing great video !!!

[@levij4]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

[@wizzardofpaws2420]

This is wonderful! There's still still so much to see and learn about.

[@Lurkzz]

Wow, this is absolutely amazing! I'm in awe

[@freedomfirst5557]

Underground home....extremely smart.

[@raffriff42]

This is fantastic - I had no idea these features existed. Once again you bring your unique insight into ancient lifestyles. I’m thinking though, they would have had the occasional deluge, just as we do today. Is there any sign of an ancient drainage system? At 3:14, we see what looks like a modern(?) drainage inlet. Speaking of low-tech cooling, Arabian wind cooling towers are brilliant, and need to be emulated.

[@v.britton4445]

Beautiful.

[@munbruk]

I visited it. Tunisia was a province part of the Roman Empire for several centuries.

[@T_Mo271]

Wow. That's extraordinary.

[@paoloviti6156]

How interesting those ruins, it would have great that un-escavated part would be cleared before it is too late handled by ruthless people destroying irreplaceable artifacts and history. Good job again 👏 👍 👌

[@kennj321]

The quality and quantity of roman construction is amazing. I suspect it was heavily subsidized by the Roman government to get Italian colonists and bureaucrats to settle in these far flung primitive places and not get homesick.

[@kawadashogo8258]

So beautiful. Man I really want to visit these places. I hope I can afford to do so someday...

[@MegaLivingIt]

Seems like people in desert areas of the USA could try and borrow from this idea of basement rooms with sunlight. Loved the mosaics in the Fish House. Thanks.🌿

[@MarcusAgrippa390]

Honey, grab the shovel! I've got an idea for the house...

[@williamlloyd3769]

Incredible. It would be interesting to see what the town looked like when it was at its height.

[@Aldopetti]

Fantastic, thanks for sharing!

[@Hhbdr]

Pretty cool. Thanks.

[@CsStoker]

Those building keep much better than building that got abandoned like 10 years ago

[@FoundingStockNZ]

Gotta love those typical geometric decorations 😂

[@richfancy653]

Thank you very much for your wonderful and amazing videos. It would be so awesome to go with you on one of your excursions to Rome!!

[@jamesmiller2332]

Great video

[@barrymoore4470]

This method of designing sunken rooms for relief from the heat of the day is also attested in Abbasid-era Iraq, and may extend even farther back into Mesopotamian history. It's an ingenious idea, and it was fascinating to see these Roman examples (perhaps unique in the archaeological record of that civilization).

[@ryanasazaki1291]

Oftentimes I find it hard to sense the mass and structure of these settlement ruins, due to most of them have collapsed and/or looted down to foundational rubbles, it is a sight to see such nicely preserved interior. Aside from some weatherings, it looked as though the owner of the property had just left mere weeks.

[@Benjaminwolf]

Wow!

[@robertYoutub]

Always think that it was 2 degrees warmer in the roman period. There was no desert and no higher water level in Europe, but no glaciers in the Alps and the agriculture did run very good,

[@ivanbarbosa81]

The Mediterranean civilizations are amazing, from egypt to greece, carthage to rome or phonecia and turkey

[@RickLowrance]

Tunisia. You are really getting around.

[@mano2432]

In the House of the Hunt, beginning around 2:20 one can see the columns of the peristyle which support an upper level, the span between the column capitals appearing to be flat arches, but ones that look improbably shallow for the weight they carry, which is a stone wall with unusual hexagonal openings. Is there more information on this unusual structural arrangement?

[@hirnlegorush]

Duuuude...you sound like the Lockpickinglawyer xD

[@chanaheszter168]

Wow, so elaborate. Wonder if they interconnect at all? Would be useful to elude desert raiders.

[@HighWealder]

Interesting

[@feridunyunus8187]

it feels weird to think that there were people who once worked and struggled to own these properties and lived with their families for decades. they laughed, cried, ate, fought only to be ruined with dust centuries later.

[@bengraham5699]

the subterranean levels were once above ground. Until the great mud flood buried the city under water and mud.

[@pelicanus4154]

Did you notice that it was much cooler in the below ground rooms?

[@flamencoprof]

Around 1997 I visited the archaeological site of the Tombs of the Kings, Paphos, Cyprus. Hellenistic 3rd century BC, but used throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods up to the fourth century, possibly even by early Christians. They were said to imitate the houses of the living, with the burial chambers opening onto a peristyle atrium. There were Doric columns as seen here, and on the whole looked very similar, though there was little decoration, nor nice mosaic floors. I just looked it up and apparently, they are much looted and quarried though.

[@flamencoprof]

@@RussianFans-vn6cj Scholars have utterly destroyed any grounds for believing the koran is the infallible word of allah and all true, as islamic doctrine dictates. For a start there are numerous contradictions, numerous versions, and numerous obvious revisions. What kind of infallibility can a god have, that needs to reveal something in writing, then come back and "revise" it?

[@MichaelVayro]

what is the covered hole in the triclenium at the bottom left at 3:28 ??

[@edcomedian357]

interesting where there doors or curtains between the rooms?

[@axelksb5011]

you should make the videos much longer

[@blakemeding7917]

Low level merchants and aristocrats from a roman backwater province, lived better than the kings of the next 1000 years.

[@GeneralThargor]

Are you the told in stone guy?

[@freedomfirst5557]

I would feel like I was imposing....I would feel that at any instant...the owners will walk in on me and give me the evil eye.

[@emilstanciu6592]

Roma victor !

[@Chris.Davies]

30fps. In 2024. Are you serious? This video would (quite literally!) be twice as good with the operation of a single switch: "1080p60". And it would be twice as good again, if it had that amazing feature we call "optical zoom". So, this video , while decent, is literally 1/4 as good as it should be. :(

[@SilurFilur]

And nowadays being called a basement dweller is derogatory.

[@chanaheszter168]

Back then no basement internet.

[@vampirotj]

Why can’t we build structures that last forever anymore ? We are supposed to be more advanced but we only know how to build weak boxes of sizes

[@cherylwood5202]

Who would have lived in these impressive buildings? If Roman aristocratic families, why were they here? Merchants, bankers, government officials? (I guess aristocrats would not have been merchants, actually...or??)

[@user-nb4ex5zk3w]

I will never buy any product advertised on you tube. They cause irritation.

[@DeyanWell]

This is Bulgarian, not Roman.

[@RJRobertson-fd8xy]

If you are American, why are you using metrics? At least convert it into imperial for those of us do not use it. Otherwise, an interesting upload.

[@seanmccambridge8950]

Thanks!

[@scenicroutestothepast]

Deeply appreciated!