Kairouan Hotel Units Reach 100% Booking Rate, Reflecting an Exceptional Influx of Visitors
The booking rate in Kairouan's hotel units has reached 100%, reflecting an exceptional influx of visitors, including foreign tourists eager to discover the city's heritage and rituals on this occasion.
A City Steeped in History
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988, Kairouan, with its millennia-old heritage and traditions, was founded in the 7th century by Okba Ibn Nafaâ. The city's architectural richness is a concentrate of the various civilizations that have succeeded each other in Tunisia. With its historic monuments, old souks, mosques, and medieval houses, the Aghlabid city is a true Islamic museum, particularly with its sites that constitute the most striking remains of the Kairouan school, which inspired and served as a model for buildings constructed throughout the western basin of the Islamic world for centuries.
A Magnet for Visitors
Hundreds of local visitors and tourists from different nationalities are eager to discover the majestic Okba Mosque, with its magnificent marble columns with ancient capitals and its admirable minaret. On the occasion of the Mouled celebration, many visitors, including Algerians and Libyans, did not miss the opportunity to visit the Great Mosque to pray and admire the complete collections of metallic ceramic reflections adorning the top of the mihrab, the wooden pulpit, the oldest in the Arab-Muslim world, the enchanting prayer hall with its splendid cedar doors from Lebanon, its 17 naves, its 8 bays, and a forest of marble columns.
A Testament to the City's Rich Heritage
Mr. Raouf Ammari, a civil servant from Mahdia, who came to Kairouan with his family, praised the exceptional beauty of the Okba Mosque: "In my opinion, it is the most important example of Aghlabid architecture. It is not only a type of African mosque, but it also represents the largest museum of Byzantine and Roman capitals. Moreover, it is located in the heart of the city of Kairouan and is signaled from afar by its minaret, from which the call to prayer is launched five times a day."
The Great Mosque of Kairouan: A Historical Landmark
The Great Mosque of Kairouan was founded by Okba in 670, then expanded by Yazid Ibn Hatem in 774 and completely rebuilt by Ziyadat Allah in 836. With a rectangular shape, it appears as an enclosure studded with buttresses and pierced with eight doors dating from the 13th to the 18th century. The central courtyard is surrounded by galleries that offer a rhythmic symphony of arches in full circle, resting on capitals and columns from ancient sites. Thus, and paradoxically, this mosque constitutes the largest museum of Roman and Byzantine capitals ever gathered in a Muslim monument.
The Minaret: A Symbol of the City's Rich History
The square-based minaret is formed of three superimposed stages reaching a height of thirty-two meters. With its imposing and sober appearance, this minaret served as an example for other Ifriqiyan mosques until the arrival of the Ottomans.
