Kerouan and El Jem

For cruise ships is not suitable for duration.

not in Europe... And not a gallop!

A beautiful excursion, which in my internal slang is called "Sahara in a day" - and deservedly! Kerouan and El Jem are the main sightseeing accents for a Saharan excursion including .The route is a triangle of about half the country. An hour’s journey from any resort will give me the opportunity to tell the story of the origin of Islam in this land.

Let’s start early in the morning with Kerouan, one of the shrines of the Muslim world, slowly, along the not yet hot streets, we will pass through the ancient city, look at it from a height, understand why all Arab cities are removed from the coast, admire the power of ancient buildings that provided the city and the district with drinking water, and in fact, became part of the policy of converting the population to Islam.

These are the Aglabid pools.

and the walls of the ancient medina (in other cities less preserved)

Ibn Jazzar Hospital of the 14th Century

We will explore in detail the ancient mosque of Sidi Okba 7-9 centuries, one of the 4 shrines of the Muslim world

Unique sundial, marble carving, clock that determines the time of each prayer for four seasons!!!

Walk through the narrow streets of Kerouan medina

Visit the Sidi Sahbi Mosque, which is said to contain the hair of the Prophet’s beard.

Kerouan is the ancient religious capital of Tunisia, which has not lost its importance - the city has more than 330 mosques! It is logical that there are also the best factories of prayer and other carpets. I usually joke that if we buy a mat, we will not see all 330 mosques.

Try the traditional Kerwan macroot cookies with stuffing from date paste - and go!

To the Roman Colosseum in El Gem to go another hour - enough time to understand where in the center of the Roman Colosseum.

We will start with it, and since history is learned along the way, you can walk along the underground passages of the Colosseum, and sit in the stands, and climb to the places that the Romans themselves called the “chicken coop” and of course, stand in the arena, seeing themselves as the winner!

After inspecting the Colosseum, we go to the Museum of El Gema, a treasure trove of Roman mosaics, not at all like those presented in the Bardo Museum, here a magnificently preserved Roman villa and the only mosaic representing the Goddess of Africa in an elephant trunk helmet ...

If desired, we can admire a new direction of art - micro mosaics, magnificent examples of which are in my photo album.