Jeffrey Hellmers Travels: Tunisia Page 1

Tunisia and London
June 15-June 25, 2003

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Tunisia Page 1
Tunisia Page 2

In June of 2003 I undertook my first solo overseas trip. Why Tunisia? Mainly I wanted to go to an Arabic speaking country that was safe to travel to that I hadn't been to before. That is, unfortunately, a pretty small list right now. It turned out to be a great choice. I spent a week in Tunisia and a day and a half in London on the way home. Traveling alone is much different than traveling in a group, but it has its advantages, especially for someone trying to improve language skills: I didn't have anyone to talk to except Tunisians!

I flew from Chicago to London, and then from London to Milan, and then from Milan to Tunis. The cities I visited in Tunisia were Tunis, Sfax, Tataouine, and Kairouan.

Click here for a map showing where Tunisia is located in North Africa.

Click here for a map of Tunisia. Cities I visited are underlined in red.

A mosque in the old city of Tunis. This photo shows a very common feature in Islamic architecture—a series of arched doorwars, two actual doors, a real arch, and a stone facade arch.

The medina, or old city, of Tunis. Tunis's old city is quite large, allowing you to spend hours meandering the streets. Like many middle eastern bazaars, this one starts out with a fairly modern grouping of stores near the main entrance, selling lots of touristy stuff. Away from here, however, few tourists go and you are among natives only.

This is a beach north of Tunis. I rode the suburban train to this town overlooking the bay and walked around for a while. Yet again, there were tourists at first, in a spot where the tour buses dropped them off. But all you have to do is walk about 500 yards away and you have normal Tunisia.

I took the train south from Tunis to a city called Sfax, where I spent one night. This is the market area of the old city of Sfax, which was used in the filming of The English Patient.

The city walls of Sfax.

Inside the city walls.

This beautiful cafe is next to the city wall. The seating area is raised up, using the ancient ramparts as part of the cafe.

Next I traveled further south to Tataouine. The next few pictures are of old granaries, not housing units, as was pictured in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. A few of these sites have been fixed up and are spectacular to visit. I think they don't get a lot of tourist traffic because the location is out of the way. Tataouine is on the edge of the Sahara and a long way from anywhere.

Near Tataouine

Near Tataouine

The next three pictures are Berber villages, in the mountains around Tataouine. The Berbers are the original inhabitants of North Africa, before the arrival of the Arabs. Many Berbers relocated to these mountain villages, only recently abondoned for city life.

Near Tataouine

Near Tataouine

My next stop was back to the north in a city called Kairouan, a city rich in Islamic heritage, including this site, a reservoir made by the Aghlabid dynasty.