Sights in Sousse
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ribat
The ribat is northwest of the mosque and is the oldest monument in the medina, built in the final years of the 8th century AD.
The entrance is through a narrow arched doorway flanked by weathered columns salvaged from the ruins of Roman Hadrumètum. The small ante-chamber was the last line of the building's defences - from high above the columns, projectiles and boiling liquids were rained down on intruders. A vaulted passage opens out into a courtyard surrounded by porticos. The ribat, designed principally as a fort, was garrisoned by devout Islamic warriors who would divide their time between fighting and silent study of the Quran in the tiny, cell-like rooms built into…
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Museum Dar Essid
This small, private museum is also not to be missed. In a quiet part of the medina, it occupies a beautiful old home, furnished in the style of a well-to-do 19th-century Sousse official and his family. The dimensions of the elaborately decorated, arched door are the first indication of the owner's status. It opens into a small anteroom for meeting strangers, and then into a tiled courtyard surrounded by the family rooms.
A plaque in the courtyard reveals that the house was built in AD 928, making it one of the oldest in the medina. There's an extravagance reflected in the Andalusian tiled façades and items ranging from European antique furniture to traditional perfume bot…
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Boujaffar Beach
Sousse's Boujaffar Beach, with its multi-kilometre stretch of high-rise hotels, cafés and restaurants, is the city's landmark. Named somewhat incongruously after a local Muslim holy man, the soft, sandy strip is a playground where families picnic, children frolic, foreigners sunbathe and the warm, calm waters of the Mediterranean is everyone's bathtub.
Only a few small parts of the strip are claimed by beachfront hotels with chaise lounges and parasols. Though these are usually not roped off, they are 'protected' by staff that generally looks kindly on foreigners while tending to treat rudely any Tunisians who wander through. Access to these areas is generally open to no…
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Great Mosque
The Great Mosque is a typically austere Aghlabid affair. It was built, according to a Kufic (early Arabic) inscription in the courtyard, in the year AD 851 by a freed slave called Mudam, on the instructions of the Aghlabid ruler Abul Abbas. Mudam adapted an earlier kasbah (fort), which explains the mosque's turrets and crenulated wall, as well as its unusual location; the great mosque is usually sited in the centre of a medina.
The mosque is also unusual in that it has no minaret; its proximity to the ribat (fortified Islamic monastery) meant that the latter's tower could be used to call the faithful to prayer. The structure underwent 17th-century modifications and 20th-c…
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Sousse Archaeological Museum
Sousse's excellent archaeological museum occupies the southern section of the old kasbah.
One of the best collections of mosaics in the country is housed in the rooms around the kasbah's two main courtyards. The highlight is the room on the northern side of the entrance courtyard with exceptional exhibits, including the Triumph of Bacchus, which depicts the Roman god of wine riding in a chariot at the head of a parade of satyrs, as well as many superb fishing scenes. Other rooms contain a collection of funerary objects from a Punic grave beneath the museum and a resident artist demonstrating the patient and painstaking artistry of mosaic-making. Note that there is no entr…
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Souq er-Ribba
This souq (market) is the closest Sousse comes to a medieval bazaar. The roof is unmistakably modern, yet the sales-pitch beneath it is age-old. Far from the tranquillity of the southern medina, Souq er-Ribba forms the commercial heart of the medina. The place is a riot of colour, packed with haggling merchants, browsing tourists and barrow boys trying to squeeze through with their improbably overloaded carts. This is not the world's most evocative bazaar but worth exploring nonetheless.
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catacombs
The catacombs include an estimated 5.5km of tunnels containing the graves of more than 15,000 local Christians, mostly from the 4th and 5th centuries AD. The only section open to the public is about 100m of the Catacombes du Bon Pasteur, named after an engraving of the bon pasteur (good shepherd) found inside. Most of the graves have been bricked in; a few have glass fronts, revealing skeletal remains.
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Kasbah
Standing at the high point of the medina, the kasbah was built onto the city walls in the 11th century. It incorporates the imposing square Khalef tower, built by the Aghlabids in AD 859 at the same time as the city walls, which superseded the ribat as the city's watchtower. It's now a lighthouse.
Note that there is no entrance from inside the medina walls.
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Kalat el-Koubba
The Koubba was an ancient funduq (caravanserai or inn) and the rooms surrounding the courtyard are now given over to mannequin displays of day-to-day life under the Ottomans. It's thought to have been built in the late 11th century AD. The most striking feature is the cupola with its remarkable zigzag ribbing; the fluted interior is just as impressive.
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Sofra Cistern
This great underground cistern, once the medina's principle water supply, was created in the 11th century by enclosing a large Byzantine church. It's an eerie place with the columns of the church rising from the black waters. The entrance is on the northeastern side, but the battered old metal door is often locked.
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Zaouia Zakkak
The splendid octagonal stone minaret belongs to the 17th-century Zaouia Zakkak, the medina's leading example of Ottoman architecture. Non-Muslims can do no more than admire from the street the minaret with its wonderful blue-green stone and tile work, with its echoes of Andalusia.
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