The most lovely city in Tunisia

[Mak]

Hi Everybody,

Kairouan, some people they call it the city of 1000 mosques, some people they call it the mediaval city, some other they see it as the most wonderfull city in Tunisia, for other it's a marginal city... everybody has his own opinion ..
and i can understand them because mostly people goes to Kairouan for a day within an excursion from Sousse or Monastir or other big/touristic cities ... so for a day you can't really see the wonderfull side of Kairouan..



Mostly in a day the tourist go for a walk through the Medina and they may visit "Bir Barouta" ( it's a kind of well, where the water comes up using a kamel )




and they probably get frustrated by the guys from the shops... they try all the time to sall there stuff .. and they may visit the "Big Mosque" and then i guess they would have a Lunch in the "Flore Resturant" and then the day is gone ...

I wish those people get the chance to go inside in the Medina .. the deep inside in the small streets in the old market ... between the small stores .. to see and feel and touch the daily life in Kairouan to smell the frech breed being just backed ... to watch a small boy in the small streets playing with his ball, laughing from all his heart ...





Everytime i'm in Kairouan i spend a day just walking in the old Medina .. it's called " Houmit ijamaa" ( it means :district of mosque) it's basically the first pip of the city because the Big mosque was the center of the city ...




What you can really see in Kairouan is the conbination of different period of the Tunisian history .. based on different backgrounds ... you walk in the "Rbaa" ( a small street with a lot of stores next to each other) you will really touch the truth and the nature of the Islamic and Arabic way of commerce ... by finding let say 20 stores forexemple sale the same products .. let you see how the commerce since the Ottoman Empire was working ... i would call it the Socialism by excellence ... to share and believe that everyday you have your part of this life and world .. you will have it no matter what would happen .... more futher of the "Rbaa" you will be still in the same small street and a lot of stores .. but now of artis**** workshops ... you will see old men working ... if you stop for a while and you look good to one of them .. you gonna see that sweet face of a hard working man ... creating his things in his own world using small and simple tools ... making a nice tranditional tunisian shoes (Balgha) or making a nice silky "Djeba" .. further more you will be in a living area .. small houses with nice old traditional doors ...




Through your walk in the morning .. you hear almost all the people greeting each other and wishing a good morning/day to each other ... This small world seems to be too far away from the life in Europe ... but in spite of everything i would still go and choose for this life than to be in crazy/fast rythme of life ...





The Medina is surrounded by a big rampart from the Hafssid period ( the medival period ) and you get access to the Medina through several doors .. each of them has a name.. known to everybody .. mostly in the up of those doors there an arch .. and mostly there is in the up an archaeologicalinscription where you can see informations written in Arabic about that door ... i've been told that in the past those doors they go open daily in the morning and they go closed in the evening in a certain time... If for exemple you will enter through "Bed Ijdid" (

[pej]

I have been to Kairouan a couple of times with my then fiance, now husband, and he bought the most amazing cookies for me to bring home to friends and relatives both times. People really loved them! Try that if you go there, you buy them per kilo and they are wrapped in plastic and put in boxes and then a plastic bag, so no problem packing them in your suitcase!

[the big burp]

i also got those biscuits too...not sure how to write the word for them...they are good and famous throughout tunisia. yum, yum, yum... :-)

[pej]

My friend who lives in Tunisia spells them makrouth. She makes them herself, too!

[ninikins]

Does someone have a recipe of them? I'd love to try and make them myself.

[Grace 111]

Please share the recipe if you get it. It is a magnificent site with the streets, vendors with shoes, and camels too. Does it really have 1000 mosques in it? My goodness that's a lot. Minnesota is called "Land of 10,000 Lakes". I am from there, and it does have multitudes of lakes, but not quite 10,000. Ha

[ammulu]

Pictures seem to be great. Thanks for sharing, I just feel that they seem to look as if they are almost 1970's time of my area. It almost used to look similar to the pictures. Just brought back my memories.