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Once known for its wide tourism strategy, Tunisia is present placing much accent connected the luxury assemblage with upscale accommodation specified arsenic Movenpick Hotel du Lac Tunis, Maison Dedine and Hotel La Badira having the trained unit and facilities to fulfill this sector.
Here are a fewer highlights to savour from my caller sojourn there.
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SIDI BOU SAID
On a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean, this charming, cliff-top colony is known for its cobbled streets, blue-and-white houses and a drawstring of cafes, souvenir stores and creation galleries.
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Filled with whitewashed homes, galore boasting carved stone, ceramic tile and marble decor, it erstwhile was an artists’ retreat attracting specified luminaries arsenic Swiss-born creator Paul Klee and Irish writer, Oscar Wilde.
Named aft a 13th-century Sufi prophet, its distinctive architecture is simply a premix of Ottoman and Andalusian owed to the accomplishment of Spanish Muslims successful the 16th century.
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Highlight of a sojourn present is Dar Ennejma Ezzahra, a palace-cum-museum and the erstwhile location of banker, creator and euphony collector, Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger. Wander its interconnecting rooms, a fascinating premix of Modernist architecture and accepted Maghrebi and Andalusian plan featuring a cardinal fountain, carved stucco and woody inlay, marble floors and columns and ornate furniture.
Interestingly, successful summation to d’Erlanger’s galore works, the depository houses an internationally renowned postulation of accepted philharmonic instruments dating backmost centuries. Several of the restaurants and cafes wrong walking region of the depository connection panoramic views implicit the coastline.
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CARTHAGE
Founded by the Phoenicians and erstwhile superior of the state of Africa successful Roman times, Carthage is present a UNESCO World Heritage archaeological tract connected a elevation supra the Gulf of Tunis. Located successful the suburbs of Tunis, the country reflects assorted aspects of beingness and decease successful past times, including the remains of villas with colorful outdoor mosaics, an acropolis, an amphitheater, basilicas, baths, cisterns and a necropolis.
The Carthage Museum adjacent houses a scope of artifacts including 4th-century BC chromatic sarcophagi and a statue of Silenus, companion of Bacchus, the Roman deity of vino and pleasure.
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YASMINE HAMMAMETWith its sandy beaches, upscale marina, restaurants and shops, this is simply a lively edifice connected Tunisia’s bluish coast. Such has been its accelerated improvement from a quiescent sportfishing larboard respective decades ago, it present has much than forty hotels and a bid of therapeutic seawater spas.
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For a hint of aged Tunisia instrumentality a stroll done the quaint medina 4th successful Hammamet, a municipality that became fashionable successful Europe aft artists specified arsenic Paul Klee visited and painted there. Take a spot connected the seaside terrace of Cafe Sidi Bouhadid – astir apt the astir fashionable spot successful municipality – and unbend waterside betwixt the town’s sturdy chromatic walls and sportfishing boats bobbing offshore.
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KAIROUAN
Known arsenic the carpet superior of Tunisia, fable has it that the girl of an Ottoman politician weaved a deep-pile carpet arsenic an offering to the mosque. Thus a long-lasting contented was calved and inactive thrives. It’s casual to sojourn a carpet shaper here.
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Located successful the halfway of the country, the metropolis is besides known for its 9th period Mosque, the oldest Islamic gathering successful North Africa, with immoderate saying it’s the 4th astir important Islamic tract aft Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
It features a immense interior courtyard surrounded connected 3 sides by double-aisled colonnades of antique columns. The Barber’s Mosque adjacent is besides worthy visiting to spot its awesome tiled walls.
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Bread-making is an art-form successful Kairouan, created successful each shapes and sizes, made with ingredients ranging from achromatic olives to semolina and honey. Pick 1 up and bask arsenic a snack.
About 70 kilometers from Kairouan is El Jem, location of the 2nd period Roman amphitheater, the 4th largest successful the world, with preserved sections of seating tiers rising forty meters. The building’s size reflects the town’s value arsenic a large olive-growing halfway during the Roman Empire.
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MONASTIR
Aside from its agelong stretches of white-sand beaches and its marina with cafes, past antiaircraft fortresses called ribats marque this cardinal coastal municipality historically interesting. The Monastir ribat is simply a labyrinth of corridors and courtyards, crenellated walls and gangly towers with wide views crossed the Mediterranean. Aside from its relation successful protecting the region, it was besides a spot of spiritual retreat for Sufi aesthetics, with 1 proverb calling it the ‘gateway to paradise.’
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TUNIS
A engaged superior with a Medina declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Tunis besides hosts the National Bardo Museum and Tourbet el-Bey, a precocious re-opened mausoleum lodging the tombs of ruling families. It comprises 8 funerary chambers covered with cupolas built astir 2 patios, its porticos resting connected pillars of Carrara marble.
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If you sojourn Tunisia during Ramadan – an accidental to acquisition an authentic mode of life, erstwhile radical accelerated by time and feast by nighttime – it is worthy taking a travel to the medina astatine night. When my companion and I did so, the cafes were bursting with young and old, each enjoying lively conversations implicit teas and brushed drinks until the aboriginal hours.
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Some artisan shops enactment unfastened precocious then, luring visitors with crafts ranging from golden jewelry to fez hats handmade from felt and popularised during the Ottoman period.
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