Tunis Day Trips: Kairouan the Holy City, the Great Mosque of Kairouan, the Aghlabid Basins, the Ribat of Monastir, and the Sahel Coast Circuit
The Tunis day trip route covers Kairouan as the most sacred single Islamic city in North Africa and the fourth holiest city in Islam, the Great Mosque of Kairouan as the oldest single mosque in the Maghreb, the Aghlabid hydraulic basins, and the Ribat of Monastir as the most completely preserved single Islamic coastal fortress in the Mediterranean.
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Kairouan: The Fourth Holiest City in Islam
Kairouan (founded 670 AD by Uqba ibn Nafi, the most militarily significant single Islamic general of the North African conquest), the most sacred single Islamic city in North Africa and the fourth holiest city in all of Islam after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem in the Maliki tradition, is the most historically important single city in Tunisian history and the city that established the Islamic urban civilization in the western Mediterranean. The Kairouan medina (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is the most completely preserved single early Islamic city in North Africa.
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Great Mosque of Kairouan: The Oldest Maghreb Mosque
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (founded 670 AD, rebuilt by the Aghlabids 836 AD) is the oldest single mosque in the Maghreb and the mosque with the oldest single minaret in the world (the three-tier square tower, 836 AD, predating all other surviving minarets in North Africa). The prayer hall of the Great Mosque with the 414 columns (the most diverse single column collection in any mosque, recycled from Roman, Byzantine, and Aghlabid buildings) and the Byzantine marble mimbar (pulpit, 862 AD, the most artistically complete single carved wooden prayer pulpit in the Islamic world) is the most archaeologically complex single Islamic interior in Africa.
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Aghlabid Basins: The 9th Century Water Engineering
The Aghlabid Basins at Kairouan (9th century, the most sophisticated single pre-modern water management system in North Africa) are two circular water storage reservoirs (the large basin 128 meters in diameter, the most extensively engineered single Aghlabid hydraulic structure) connected by the most ingeniously designed single settling tank that decanted the silt from the Kairouan plain flash flood water before storing it for the city supply. The Aghlabid Basins are the most technically impressive single early Islamic engineering achievement in the Maghreb.
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Ribat of Monastir: The Mediterranean Islamic Fortress
The Ribat of Monastir, 60 kilometers east of Kairouan on the Mediterranean coast, is the most completely preserved single Islamic coastal ribat (warrior-monk fortress) in the Mediterranean and the building most used by the international film industry to represent the ancient Jerusalem (most famously in Monty Python's Life of Brian, 1979, and Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, 1977). The Ribat tower provides the most panoramically complete single Mediterranean coast view from a single Islamic fortress in North Africa.
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El Djem: The African Colosseum
El Djem, 60 kilometers south of Sousse, contains the most impressive single Roman monument in Africa: the El Djem Amphitheatre (3rd century AD, the third largest Roman amphitheatre in the world with a capacity of 35,000 spectators, larger than the Colosseum in Rome) standing in near-complete preservation on the Sahel plain in the most dramatically isolated single Roman monument location in North Africa. The El Djem Museum adjacent to the amphitheatre holds the most regionally specific single Roman mosaic collection in Tunisia.
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Sbeitla: The Roman Temple Precinct
Sbeitla (ancient Sufetula), 100 kilometers southwest of Kairouan, is the most spectacularly preserved single Roman temple precinct in Tunisia with the three Capitol temples (the most architecturally balanced single Roman triple-temple complex in North Africa, dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva) standing in the most complete single Roman forum in Tunisia. The Sbeitla temple precinct at the golden hour light is the most photogenically complete single Roman archaeological site in the Maghreb outside of the Tunisian coast.