Kairouan

Today is Sunday and many things are closed, so it will be a less full day, with more free time.

Kairouan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Again breakfast at the hotel at 7:30 followed by an 8:30 start to avoid the hotter part of the day.

We walked the 4 blocks over to the Great Mosque.

The four steps on the left lead up to a sundial that is used to determine some of the prayer times.

The decorative blocks and inscriptions (note one is upside down) came from Carthage, 85 miles away.

Before you pray, a good Muslim must have ritually washed, also called ablution properly. This well was used for the ablution water. Notice the deep rope channels worn in the insides of the marble well.

The hallway in front of the prayer room that has the niche that gives the direction to face towards Mecca.

The blocks in the minaret are not the only blocks taken from old Roman cities. Note the columns in the mosque. The have Roman capitals, in fact the columns are also Roman marble. There is wood on top of the capitals to dampen earthquakes.

Women have a separate entrance and separate area in the prayer room. They also have a shaded side of courtyard they can use to read the Koran. Two women were there reading the Koran while we visited. Women can also choose to do the ablution at home before coming and many do.

Then a quick bus ride to the Aghlabid Basins. These were built around 860 AD to provide a more consistant water supply and a 36 km aqueduct was built to supply water to them.

There was a nice map of the old city of Kairouan.

Then another short bus ride to the Mausoleum of Abou Zamaa al-Balawi

Next we went to a carpet sales shop and got a quick demonstration of the weaving technique. The woman demonstrating could tie each knot with her left hand only. Then he showed us how the different pile counts of the carpets look, 90,000, 160,000 up to 1 million knots per square meter. The 1 million knots per square meter are only produced in silk, the others in wool on cotton threads.

The silk carpets will change color a bit as they are turned. The silk carpet has a directional nap and that causes the color change. The silk carpets are much smaller, as they are expensive to produce.

We stopped at a grocery store before lunch and did a little shopping for a light supper tonight. Then took it back to the refrigerator in the room before lunch.

Lunch was a four course meal at El Brija. Salad, soup, steak with rice, potatos and grilled vegtables then a fruit plate for dessert.

I chose to walk the six blocks back from lunch and take pictures.

There was a house near the restaurant with a pretty patio on top.

The street that has the main entrance to the mosque was almost deserted in the afternoon. The mosque door was closed at this time.

Then we rested and worked on pictures a bit before going for a swim in the hotel pool. It was nearly empty when we arrived, but a large group of German travellers arrived and enjoyed the pool with us.

Supper is not provided and with the big lunch we didn’t want a lot. We bought some rolls, tahini with pistachios and some yogurt for supper. We have some dates and almonds from a couple days ago. That will be enough for supper.