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My parents try to go to Tunisia every year for vacation, and I joined them again in 2024. I met them in La Marsa, explored Al Ahmadi Mosque, and enjoyed the view.
Kobbet El Haoua, an abandoned building once used for events. It housed the private chambers of the Bey.
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I did say my LA 2023 photos were next, but I just realized I snapped the same shot years apart. My composition and editing sure has changed. Check it out!
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Before I left for home, I spent a day in Tunis, shopping and exploring, and then headed to a coastal hotel the day before my flight. The hotel would've been lovely if they didn't ban the use of full-body cover-ups (burkinis) in the swimming pool. Very weird discrimination for a Muslim country.
I didn't bother with my camera, so all the following are from my phone. This is also the last post for this trip; I hope you enjoyed my cataloguing of it!
I didn't bother with my camera, so all the following are from my phone. This is also the last post for this trip; I hope you enjoyed my cataloguing of it!
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Kairouan is one of my favourite cities that I've visited in Tunisia. On this trip, we asked a local for directions to the mausoleum of Abu Zama El Belaoui (رضي الله عنهم ). He ended up taking us on a very thorough walking tour of, among others, seven holy sites, ending with the Great Mosque of Kairouan, which was fun if totally unexpected.
Here are some of the highlights from wandering the city.
Here are some of the highlights from wandering the city.
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We drove to Gabés, about an hour or so away, to visit a relative and also a maqam of the saint Sidi Lubaba, which was very pretty and, like the TARDIS, seemed bigger on the inside, somehow. The city itself is unique, being a place where you can see mountains, the sea, oases, and the desert.
Next post coming shortly; it's a long one (and one of the last for this trip!) or I would have merged it with this one. Stay tuned!
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A little outside of my grandparents' hometown of Sfax, surrounded by olive fields, you can find the Roman ruins of the coastal town Lunca. We toured the area as well as visited a saint buried there, before heading to the beach to enjoy the sun and sea.
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I was so excited to see my first amphitheatre in real life! It was as awesome as expected and it was so fun to try and imagine how it might have looked and been when it was new and full of people!
It was also really cool to see this merging of time periods and cultures between Rome and Islam, with the gorgeous Grand Mosque—and its green door—right next to the arena.
It's hard to capture the sheer scale of the amphitheatre, so a lot of these images or just glimpses at various parts of it.
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After resting a bit in Mahres, we decided to do some more touring. Our first visit was to Sousse, to see the Great Mosque, built in 851 during the Aghlabid dynasty. It has a gorgeous courtyard and domed tower which probably functioned as a minaret.
The Mosque felt as old as it looked, which is to say, ancient. There's a sort of quiet awe that overcomes you to be in places like this.
Notice the Kufic script on the walls, one of the oldest Arabic calligraphic type!
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After completing our visit of the zawiya, we decided to head into the Old City for some lunch, shopping, and to pray (once it opened for prayer) at the Zaytuna University.
I love revisiting places I've captured before. It's a lot of fun to take different shots or capture different perspectives of similar places, or even to get a similar shot as before but with more experience and better equipment! Such is the case with the first photo below—the last time I'd visited Tunis I'd wanted to capture the Tunisian flag banner against the architecture, and I did it again but from a different viewpoint.
It's like a bookmark in my memory and also in my photography.
I love revisiting places I've captured before. It's a lot of fun to take different shots or capture different perspectives of similar places, or even to get a similar shot as before but with more experience and better equipment! Such is the case with the first photo below—the last time I'd visited Tunis I'd wanted to capture the Tunisian flag banner against the architecture, and I did it again but from a different viewpoint.
It's like a bookmark in my memory and also in my photography.
I also love visiting souqs; they're always a treasure trove of sights and sounds and experiences, tunnelling through stone archways and branching out into a hundred alleys.
One moment, colourful woven verandas form a roof overhead, the next moment you step into a pool of blazing light beaming down upon you, and in another moment you're walking through cool shade, sidestepping other people, carts, mopeds, stray cats, and little tables of diners and vendors with carts bearing everything imaginable.
You also get the sense that souqs are, at heart, timeless. The wares and fashions may change, but souqs feel like they exist in a liminal space, and at any moment I'm always convinced I'll bump into someone from a very different time, a hundred years past or a hundred years from now, just rounding the corner.
One moment, colourful woven verandas form a roof overhead, the next moment you step into a pool of blazing light beaming down upon you, and in another moment you're walking through cool shade, sidestepping other people, carts, mopeds, stray cats, and little tables of diners and vendors with carts bearing everything imaginable.
You also get the sense that souqs are, at heart, timeless. The wares and fashions may change, but souqs feel like they exist in a liminal space, and at any moment I'm always convinced I'll bump into someone from a very different time, a hundred years past or a hundred years from now, just rounding the corner.
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The next site we visited was the zawiya and khalwa of the great scholar and saint Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili. It was a beautiful place in the midst of a large cemetery. The tiles were hot beneath our feet and the colours vibrant on that blazingly sunny day, our surroundings emanating a near tangible sense of peace and rest despite that it was undergoing some repairs. The caretakers were very sweet and welcoming, as they always are in these great places.
