Chapter 6 – Mosques and carpets

Kairouen was the next stop. This city is the fourth holiest place for Islam after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. It was the center of Islam for Africa and was founded by invading Muslims. The Great Mosque there lives up to its name. with columns plundered from Carthage and other Roman sites, it has a marvelous series of colonnades around a central courtyard. There are also a multitude of columns in the prayer hall that make it feel a bit like a forest.

The most interesting part about the mosque is it’s construction as a giant cistern. Kairouen is in the middle of nowhere. It was purposefully located there to far enough away from the Byzantine controlled coast and the Berber controlled mountains. But there is no river there or lake. There is a source of water from the aquifer below (and every traditional house actually has its own well in the kitchen). But water, as can be imagined, was scarce and needed to be hoarded. Enter the mosque. The entire courtyard was designed as a rain-catching basin. It slopes gently towards the middle where there is a giant drain. This drain even has intricate notches on it that filter out the dust. Giant cisterns sit underneath the courtyard. Necessity is the mother of invention indeed.

They also brought water in from mountains 25 miles away. They used an aqueduct like system and then collected the water in massive cisterns on the outskirts of town. These pools are huge - 15 feet deep and 300 feet in diameter. While having giant pools of water around is good for drinking, it’s also good for mosquito breeding and they had big malaria problems.

The medina in Kairouen was the most authentic we visited. While there are a few souvenir shops, this is really a local medina used by locals. Walking around there we really felt like we were seeing an actual town in motion as opposed to a Disneyfied version which some other medinas are like. We also stumbled into a lovely experience that wasn’t in any of the guidebooks. They’ve preserved a traditional house that was at least 200 years old and turned it into a museum (people lived in it as recently as 20 years ago). We really got to see like what life used to be like there. The bonus was a lovely terrace where we had tea and ate makhroud (local sweets) where we could look out on the medina.

Kairouen is also well known for its oriental carpets. There were carpet shops on every corner with salesman all asking you to come in. All of the tourist sites are covered by one global ticket that you buy. Clever salesmen come up to you and say, “Come into my shop and look a the mosque from the terrace, it is covered by the ticket” We did go into one (to see the old Governour’s Mansion which is now a carpet shop). It was all such a dance. He showed us around the mansion and explained the history. Then he showed us a woman making a carpet. Of course, she hadn’t been making a carpet and he forced her to start working on one as we entered. Then he said, ”Why don’t you sit and see some of my carpets.” Tea appeared and so did a multitude of carpets. “How much are they?” “For your wife they are free. If you love her, you will buy her one.” They must have rolled out 20 carpets. We said we needed to think about it. Not the answer desired. Surprisingly, he wasn’t as persistent as I expected and we got out relatively easily.

Our only truly negative experience to date (outside of the hissing and children cursing) was as we drove into Kairouen. It wasn’t signed well (nor is much of the country) and we weren’t sure which way was where. As I pulled over and was consulting the map, a man came up on his moped and said in French, “Are you looking for the Medina?” He said he would point us in the right direction and then, “I’ll take you.” This should have been the first clue. People are often nice and will point you and even walk you a portion of the way (I often do that) but this was a bit much. Several twists and turns later it obviously wasn’t feeling right. I stopped and asked someone else the direction and they pointed the other way. The man yelled at them and they reversed themselves. We turned around. I’m sure he was taking us to a carpet shop or his friend’s hotel. He was furious and kept trying to get us to go back. We went back to where we had been (I had seen a police officer there in case of trouble) at which point he spit at our car. I went to the police officer to ask directions and waited patiently while he finished with someone else. He almost completely ignored me and was about to ride off on his motorcycle when I pleaded with him to stop. He was then pretty much useless and rode off. Later in the day, several people were very helpful with directions restoring my faith in the generally good nature of people - at least for a little while


The environment here can be merciless and I saw something I’ve never seen before. There was a horse that had literally dropped dead on the side of the road (in a fenced off farm). It was just lying there on its side clearly expired. Of course I know that animals, like everything die, but there was something so stark about seeing a dead horse just lying there. It was like death was staking out his claim, “I’m always here, never forget it.” What I really want to know is why no one has done something with the poor thing. It seems somehow disrespectful to just leave it there to rot away.

Speaking of dead animals, they have an interesting way of advertising their lamb barbecues here. Every so often you come upon a village that clearly acts as a pit stop on a drive and it is lined with barbecue joints. Men standing over bbq stands in the heat with a lamb carcass dangling upside down next to them. Some of the carcasses were just that, carcasses skinned and ready to be cut into chops etc. Some of the shops also dangle the skinned part - literally the whole skin. It’s like someone let all the air out of a sheep balloon. Many of these shops have live sheep milling about right next to their dead, hanging brethren and the grill. I guess this is the locavore movement at its finest, right?