Kairouan

Kairouan is done on foot, in one full day or two easy ones with morning light in the medina for the second. The city is traditionally held to be the fourth holiest in Sunni Islam, and UNESCO added its medina to the World Heritage register in 1988. The walk starts at the Bir Barouta well, near the medina's main street, climbs to the Great Mosque on its edge, then goes out through the gate to the Aghlabid Basins and the Sidi Sahbi mausoleum.

The day starts at Bir Barouta, a well a few steps off the medina's main street. A camel tied to a wooden wheel walks in a circle and draws the water, which legend says runs underground all the way from the Zamzam spring in Mecca; visitors are poured a glass, with a small tip for the handler. Entry to the well itself is free.

From the well the walk continues to the Great Mosque, on the medina's northern edge. It took its present form in the 9th century, when the Aghlabid dynasty rebuilt it — the same dynasty that gave the city its water basins. A courtyard ringed with columns of recycled ancient stone leads to a prayer hall with sixteen aisles; you may only look in from the doorway, but the courtyard and the minaret are open to walk. Entry is €3.56, a visit takes 1 h, open winter 8–2pm, summer 7.30–2pm, Friday until noon.

Outside the walls, ten minutes further, the Aghlabids built the city's water basins in the same century, for a town with no river: two circular reservoirs, the larger over a hundred metres across, storing hill water for the dry months. Today they're walked around the rim, half an hour, entry €3.56, open winter 8–5pm, summer 7.30–2pm, shorter Fri/weekend. In the other direction, also outside the walls, stands the Zaouia of Sidi Sahbi, a mausoleum with a tiled courtyard holding the tomb of a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, said to have been buried with three hairs of his beard. Entry €3.56, 45 min, open winter 8–3pm, summer 7.30–2pm, Friday until 1pm.

Back in the medina, the loop closes at the carpet souk, which trades on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays as the zarbia market, and on through the lanes to the Mosque of the Three Doors, whose 866 façade is the oldest decorated mosque front known to survive. It's seen from the street, with no entry inside. Walking the souk and medina takes 2 h and needs no ticket. Kairouan is reached via Sousse (Monastir airport, MIR), louage or SNCRT bus from the Sousse station, 1 h 30; anyone staying a second day has time for El Jem or Sousse too, both an hour and a half away.