Things to do in Sousse
-
A
Soula Shopping Centre
Located at the entrance to the medina, this mega four-storey complex is probably the largest price-fixed centre in the country. Most credit cards accepted.
reviewed
-
B
Restaurant-Café Seles
Restaurant-Café Seles is a cozy little spot with cushion benches, perfect for a drink or food.
reviewed
-
C
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…
reviewed
-
D
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…
reviewed
-
E
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…
reviewed
-
F
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…
reviewed
-
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…
reviewed
-
G
Planet Food
For homesick Americans, this Planet Hollywood imitator should do the trick. From the movie posters to the headshots of famous actors to the TVs playing movies and videos, Planet Food is all American. However, it's Tunisians who mostly come here, young people on dates and families enjoying the enormous menu at cheaper prices than the tourist traps. Pizzas, hamburgers, fish, chicken, salads, etc are served. Paella for two is delicious.
Until the kinks are worked out don't be surprised if the service is desultory.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
H
Caracas
One of the better places to eat in the city centre, frequented by young and hip Tunisians, Caracas is built to resemble some version of the Latin American city. Well, there are faux stone walls and colonial archways but it's a modern restaurant with TVs tuned to Arab language music videos. The eclectic menu has everything from pizza to deli sandwiches and Tunisian and western standards. The enormous chicken omelette is a meal unto itself.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
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.
reviewed
-
Sousse Medina
Sousse medina probably has the most interesting combination of religious and historical monuments. It is also one of the most convenient places to shop in all of Tunisia. Besides an enormous array of traditional shops, and souvenir shops that operate on the barter system, there are many price-fixed centres scattered around the medina and along blvd de la Corniche in the Ville Nouvelle.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
I
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.
reviewed
-
Coffeehouses
There are a bunch of good coffeehouses in the medina including Café Sidi Bouraoui and Café Yasmine. Restaurant-Café Seles is a cozy little spot with cushion benches, perfect for a drink or food. And Café des Nomades is another small inviting spot like the Seles in the very southwestern corner of the medina below the kasbah.
reviewed
-
J
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.
reviewed
-
K
Albatross
Just past Tip Top is the Albatross, another of the tourist-class restaurants that spend a great deal of attention on translating the menu and dressing the waiters in uniforms, and give at least a few nods in the direction of elegance, but that serve up unspectacular Tunisian and continental fare. Pizzas are good.
reviewed
-
Du Peuple
The owner of this little medina restaurant has the tourist trade cornered and rightly so. Hearty meat and couscous dishes are served off an assembly line, and tea and watermelon come free with desert. It's a bright and pleasant spot just inside the medina walls next to the Hôtel de Paris.
reviewed
-
L
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.
reviewed
-
Saloon Steakhouse Grill & Disco Pub
If you've every wanted to eat on what appears to be the movie set for an American western in Tunisia, then this surreal restaurant around 2km from the Ville Nouvelle should not be missed. Hearty steaks are the deserved specialty though you have to pay extra for the custom sauces.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
M
Dodo Restaurant
This, the most modern of the medina restaurants, is a bit of a surprise. Surrounded by the clutter of commerce, the Dodo is a little bit of a refuge though it is expensive by medina standards. Pizza and Tunisian meat dishes are on the menu.
reviewed
-
N
Restaurant Marmite
Across from the Hôtel Residence Monia, this posh, at least as far as cost goes, restaurant serves up seafood and other Tunisian fare, plus wine. A marmite, by the way, in Tunisia is a large urn-shaped cooking pot.
reviewed
-
O
Café Theatre Municipal
This is one especially good café. Squeezed into the street corner next to the theatre, which at the time of research was undergoing renovations, it boasts one of the prime people watching spots in the city.
reviewed
-
Sousse Market
Sousse's weekly market is held on Sunday in the Souq el-Ahad compound just south of the bus and louage stations. You'll find everything from handicrafts to livestock to souvenirs for the busloads of tourists.
reviewed
-
P
Restaurant Tip Top
Tip Top is your standard tourist restaurant though it seems to be more popular than others, possibly because their street-side touting waiters are more vocal. The seafood is good though expensive.
reviewed
