The blazing August sun doesn’t stop us from a private walking tour through the medina with our Doolesha guide, Wajdi Borgi. We meet the energetic and witty Wajdi at Dar ben Gacem boutique hotel on Rue du Pacha. Even at 4 p.m., the street cats are tucked away in the shade.
View of the Kasbah Mosque from the plaza of the Hôtel de Ville
After discussing our tour preferences, we zigzag our way to the plaza of the Hôtel de Ville, a high point overlooking the medina. Many of the capital’s important administrative buildings are located at the higher western section of the medina. This is where we begin our tour.
In the eighth century, Muslim-Arabs began building a walled city at the site of an abandoned Romano-Byzantine town. The fortified city’s strategic location slightly inland from the Mediterranean coast provided access to trade and naval defense. The walls remained intact until the mid-19th century, when they were taken down due to disrepair and an expanding city. Today Tunis’ metropolitan area is home to two million people, almost a fifth of Tunisia’s population.
Minaret of Mosque El-Kssar (Image: Rebecca Phillips)
From the plaza, we walk along Boulevard Bab Menara, where the wall of the medina once stood. The medina is a residential and commercial quarter of Tunis, currently home to around 100,000 people. You will find busy commercial streets, intimate corner, splendid palaces, and a coherent urban fabric, where you can shop for souvenirs alongside locals picking up food for dinner or ordering a new pair of shoes. After entering the medina at Rue du Château, we admire the 12th century Mosque of El-Kssar whose minaret was rebuilt in the Moorish style in the 17th century. From here, we walk through Souk Berka, the ignoble old souk used for the slave trade, which transitioned to selling jewelry in 1846 when slavery was abolished in Tunisia. We amble on to Souk Echaouachia, where the iconic red chachia hats are made, and to Rue Sidi ben Arous, where we observe the differences between the octahedral minaret of the 17th century Hammouda Pacha Mosque and the square minaret of the oldest mosque of Tunis, Zitouna Mosque, which dates to around 700 CE.
Souk en Nhas (copper souk)
Next, we turn down Rue de la Kasbah to find the copper artisans in Souk en Nhas hammering away at copper products. The atelier is stacked with serving platters, water buckets for the hammams, tea pots, and trays for wedding ceremonies. Navigating the streets of the medina engages all of the senses. If lost, the distant sound of hammering would bring us back to this souk.
Entrance to Thora Synagogue
We stay in the shade of the buildings as we wind our way north through the sinuous alleyways. We arrive to Hafsia, also called the Hara, where a Jewish community existed for 700 years beginning in the 13th century. The Thora synagogue was built in the 1930s, but now sits abandoned and in disrepair.
Wajdi leading us through Rue des Glacières
From here, we continue along Rue des Glacières, where ices blocks were stored and sold in the 18th and 19th centuries. European-style buildings begin to appear as we approach Bab Bhar, the “Sea Gate,” also known as the Porte de France, where the modern city or Ville Nouvelle begins. As we exit Bab Bhar, we take a quick selfie with Wajdi, before jumping into a taxi to enjoy a dip in the hotel pool.
Brooke, Wajdi, Rebecca, and Pauline at Bab Bhar