Wednesday was another early start as at 8 am we left Tunis to head due south on a modern motorway. It was the hottest day as the temperature rose to 31C. Our destination was Kairouan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kairouan – the name means \u2018military camp\u2019 in Arabic – is Tunisia\u2019s oldest city, founded in 670 AD by Oqba ibn Nafi. It is Islam\u2019s fourth holiest city, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This UNESCO-listed city was a revered centre of Islamic scholarship in the 9th century and today it is a place of pilgrimage. Indeed it is said that seven visits here by the faithful equates to one pilgrimage to Mecca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The town includes the enormous Great Mosque of Sidi Oqba, dating from the 8th century with most of its buildings constructed in 17th century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The oldest part of the mosque is the square minaret which was built between 724 and 728, making it the oldest minaret in the world. The location features a total of 414 marble, granite and porphyry pillars, many reused from ancient Roman and Byzantine sites across North Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our other visit in the city was to the Mausoleum of Sidi Sahab, also known as the Zaouia of Sidi Sahab or the Mausoleum of the Barber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is one of Kairouan\u2019s most famous religious monuments. The mausoleum is dedicated to Abu Zama\u2018a al-Balawi, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who, according to tradition, always carried three hairs from the Prophet\u2019s beard\u2014hence the nickname \u201cthe Barber.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The complex includes a mosque, courtyards, and richly decorated rooms, making it a significant site of pilgrimage and an excellent example of traditional Tunisian architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We remained in the city for lunch – an affair of four courses – at the Hotel Amina. Afterwards we drove north-east to our accommodation in Sousse, arriving in mid-afternoon so that it was not too challenging a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our stay for the next three nights is the Movenpick Hotel. Located on the beachfront in the heart of the city, this is a splendid, modern hotel with over 600 rooms. Tess and I were given one overlooking a terrace garden with the Mediterranean Sea just beyond. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday was another early start as at 8 am we left Tunis to head due south on a modern motorway. It was the hottest day as the temperature rose to 31C. Our destination was Kairouan. Kairouan – the name means \u2018military camp\u2019 in Arabic – is Tunisia\u2019s oldest city, founded in 670 AD by Oqba […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-life-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29890"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29914,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29890\/revisions\/29914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}