Tunisian Travels – Day 4: A Day Trip to Kairouan

Since breakfast at my hotel began at eight o’clock, I started the day later than I usually do. The day before, I asked the receptionist whether there was a bus to Kairouan, but she recommended I take the louage instead. “Louage” (which simply means “rent” in French) is the most popular form of intercity public transport in Tunisia and functions a bit like a shared taxi. The system works like this: A person buys the ticket to their destination at the corresponding counter at the louage station – usually a separate station from the bus station and the train station. Then, they go outside to find their van, where the driver usually stands ready to begin ushering them in. The van departs when it is fully occupied, which means there are no fixed schedules for louages, but the vehicles take little time to fill up on high-demand routes.

I came across a taxi as soon as I left the walls of Sousse and proceeded to the louage station. The process played out almost exactly as I described above, with just a few hick-ups. First, I queued in the wrong line for a few minutes before realising that the line was only for tickets to Tunis. Then I walked around trying to find the right window, but none of the signs above the counters said “Kairouan,” so I queued up in the shortest line I could find and asked where the Kairouan counter was. In typical Tunisian fashion, I was told to walk out of the building and “go straight.” As I have written previously, the word “straight” simply translates to “wherever I would find it most logical to go if I were in your shoes,” which is not very good advice. In fact, the counter was outside and two turns to the right.

I was the first person in the van to Kairouan, but it filled up very quickly, and since no one asked to stop on the way, we made it to the city just a little after ten o’clock. I did not see much of interest on the way except for a donkey pulling a cart. I was initially going to stay in the van all the way to the louage station so that I would know where to catch the van back, but the lady sitting between me and the door asked to stop on the butcher street, which was far too interesting to miss. I hopped off right across from a shop with cow’s heads dangling in front of the entrance and a nonplussed camel lazing just a few feet away.

During the next few hours, I criss-crossed the walled city of Kairouan as my fancy took me. I was most impressed by its Great Mosque, but a few other sites were open as well, such as the Mausoleum of Sidi Abid el Ghariani, the Zawiya of Sidi Sahib and the Aghlabid Basins. At Bir Barrouta, I was shown an old-fashioned mechanical well from which water was drawn through a camel-powered pulley system. I doubt this system is used much nowadays, but the locals have kept the mechanism and have the camel walk a few rounds whenever a tourist stops by.

Founded in 670 CE by the Umayyads, Kairouan became one of the major intellectual centres of the Muslim world. Its Great Mosque, likely the oldest mosque in the whole Maghreb, served as the template for all subsequent mosques built in the region and Spain. The mosque also housed an influential university where scholars exchanged ideas not only on religion, but also on law, astronomy, medicine, and more. The Blue Quran, one of the oldest Quranic manuscripts, was likely produced in Kairouan, as were the oldest texts of the Maliki Islamic School, which encompasses most of Northern Africa bar Egypt.

As for Kairouan’s other sights, the Mausoleum of Sidi Abid el Ghariani is quite small, and its second floor was inaccessible at the time of my visit (as were several other attractions like the Mosque of the Three Doors). The building is called a “zawiya,” which does indeed translate to “mausoleum,” but also carries the connotation of a place of religious instruction and activity. Similarly, the Zawiya of Sidi Sahib is a complex with a madrasa and a mausoleum, the latter of which holds the tomb of a barber and companion to the Prophet Muhammad. It is said he was buried with three hairs from Muhammad’s beard after dying in battle.

Finally, the Aghlabid Basins are two large water reservoirs that stand at the northern edge of the historic centre. They can be accessed from the west, but the local tourist centre has a terrace on its top floor which offers a good view of the smaller pool. The basins were built in the ninth century to cover Kairouan’s water needs, containing water diverted from the nearby river and mountain springs. The basins’ builders, the Aghlabids, were vassals of the Abbasid Caliphate and ruled an area that stretched from eastern Algeria to Western Libya, as well as including southern Italy, Sicily, and potentially Sardinia.

I completed my walk around Kairouan at around one o’clock, after which I proceeded to the louage station – only a short walk from the Zawiya of Sidi Sahib. Again, the process was exceedingly quick and straightforward, and I made it back to Sousse at around half past two. Unfortunately, I was not able to do much with all this extra time, as the archaeological museum and the Kasbah Citadel were closed, so I walked around and took another look at the sights I saw yesterday.