The grand mosque of Kairouan is a very pleasing space. Being infidels, our visit was limited to the courtyard. The most curious feature of the mosque is that all the hundreds of columns are different, most likely harvested from local Roman buildings considering El Jem and Sousse are very far.
Among the other mosques, madrasas, and mausoleums in town, Zaouia of Sidi Sahabi is particularly beautiful with colorful tiles and carved white stucco. The Aghlabid Basins, built in the 900's to supply the city with water - 2 of 16 survived to the present - were the largest and most advanced waterworks at the time. They look stylish too.
It was not our plan to day trip to Kairouan. The plan was to visit Mahdia and Monastir by suburban train. After breakfast we walked from our hotel one kilometer to the suburban train station to the south only to find an empty station. Turns out that the entire SNCFT train system was on strike. So we changed plans and took a louage (shared taxi) to Kairouan.
On the way to the louage station we passed some archaeological excavators working on a mosaic. ;-) The louage station was slightly chaotic but in no time we bought tix and were on our way.
The louage dropped us off at the Great Mosque. This mosque is known for its reuse of Roman columns in the courtyard porticos, and inside the worship hall.
The Islamic sundial in the courtyard. Two of the 5 daily prayer times are determined by the length of a shadow.
Some photos around town.
The Zaouia of Sidi Sahabi is particularly beautiful with tiles and carved stucco.
The Aghlabid Basins.
1 comment:
Great pic of the market with vegetable stalls.
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