On the roof of a four-storey carpet store in Tunis, the pale afternoon solar is sinking behind the jumble of sand-coloured homes. Big kilim and margoum rugs grasp between stone arches, and two small cats tumble and play at my toes, the bottom beneath us lined in a whole lot of intricate tiles.
“That is one of the best view within the previous city, you simply need to know the place to seek out it,” says my native information, Fathi. From right here, on the massive terrace of Palais d’Orient, you’ll be able to see proper throughout the medina, from the white domed mausoleums to the towering minaret of Zitouna mosque, the oldest within the metropolis. Quickly, the decision to prayer rings out, ushering in nightfall.
Again down the tiled steps, by means of rooms piled excessive with handwoven rugs, and I am again within the coronary heart of Tunis medina. This historic maze of labyrinthine streets and alleyways is filled with souks promoting every thing from leather-based baggage and sneakers to lanterns, jewelry and fragrance. The air buzzes with the chatter of market distributors and artisans onerous at work, as locals flit down the slim cobbled streets and between the marble columns housing native hammams, mosques and madrasas (faculties for the examine of Islam).
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It jogs my memory of the joyous mayhem of Marrakech and Fez, however the distinction right here is the dearth of different vacationers. I am used to jostling for area with guests in different souks, lining as much as haggle for brightly-coloured pottery and Berber rugs, or for a spot within the rooftop café to order a mint tea. However there aren’t any crowds right here, until you depend the bustle of native distributors, and positively no queues. Though it has been repeatedly developed over the centuries – after being based round 698 AD, the medina as we all know it at this time was fashioned below the Hafsid rule of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries – this seems like an untouched a part of the North African puzzle, a welcome distinction to its in style neighbour.
“Solely 8 or 9% of our guests are British,” explains Mehdi Belkhodja, supervisor at The Residence Tunis, my base for this journey and town’s grand dame resort. “A majority are after all French – round 40% – and the remainder are principally different Europeans.”