Architecture sights in Sousse
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A
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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B
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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C
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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