Sfax is Tunisia's second-largest city (population 950,000) and the economic capital of southern Tunisia — a city whose character is defined by its exceptional Medina (one of the most intact and best-preserved medieval Islamic city centres in North Africa, with the finest surviving Arab urban fabric in Tunisia outside Kairouan) and by the remarkable prosperity generated from olive oil production (Sfax sits at the centre of Tunisia's olive belt — Tunisia is the world's leading olive oil exporter, and the region around Sfax has 15 million olive trees producing the world's largest single-region olive oil output; the Sfax olive oil culture (the olive tree has been cultivated in the Sfax region since the Phoenician period, over 2,500 years; the Sfaxian olive oil family cooperatives (the confréries de l'huile d'olive) have managed the same olive groves for generations, with some individual trees over 1,000 years old). Sfax's Medina is the largest traditional urban centre in Tunisia with a population still living in the historic walled city — approximately 30,000 people within the medieval walls; the Ksar (the double rampart of the Medina of Sfax, 9th century, rebuilt and reinforced multiple times to the 17th century) is the best-preserved set of Arab defensive walls in Tunisia; the Great Mosque of Sfax (849 AD — one of the oldest mosques in Tunisia, built in the Aghlabid period that also produced the Great Mosque of Kairouan; the minaret is the finest example of Aghlabid ecclesiastical architecture in southern Tunisia) and the Dar Jellouli Palace Museum (the finest traditional Sfaxian aristocratic town house, 17th century, with the original tile work, the carved plaster ceilings and the costumes of the traditional Sfaxian bourgeoisie). The Kerkennah Islands (25 km offshore — the flat, sandy, palm-covered archipelago accessible by ferry from Sfax; traditionally the most traditional fishing community in Tunisia, with the distinctive charfia fish trap technique, the octopus fishing and the horse-drawn calèche transport on the unpaved island roads) complete the Sfax experience.
Dar Jellouli (the palace-museum in the heart of the Sfax Medina — the finest surviving example of the Sfaxian aristocratic townhouse (dar, the courtyard house type common throughout the Arab world; the Sfaxian version uses double courtyard layout with the women's quarters on the upper floor opening onto the inner courtyard and the reception rooms for male guests on the ground floor opening onto the outer courtyard); the tilework (the zellij tilework of the ground floor, the stucco carved ceilings of the reception rooms, the wooden mashrabiyya (carved lattice screens) of the upper gallery); the collection of traditional Sfaxian clothing (the women's ceremonial dress, the burnous, the chechia — the red felt cylindrical cap that is the traditional Tunisian hat, still worn in Sfax as elsewhere in Tunisia).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Great Mosque of Sfax (Jama al-Kabir — founded in 849 AD during the Aghlabid dynasty, 100 years after the Great Mosque of Kairouan; the mosque has been enlarged and rebuilt multiple times but the original prayer hall and the Aghlabid minaret (the three-tier square minaret, the standard Aghlabid minaret form found throughout Tunisia and Andalusia — the model for all subsequent North African minarets; the Sfax minaret is the finest surviving Aghlabid minaret outside Kairouan) are preserved; the interior is not open to non-Muslims but the exterior, the courtyard portico and the minaret are viewable from adjacent streets; the Medina streets around the mosque contain the oldest continuously operating religious education institutions in southern Tunisia).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Sfax Medina souk system (the artisan quarter of the Medina arranged by trade in the traditional Islamic city plan — the Souk des Forgerons (blacksmiths), the Souk des Dinandiers (copper and brassware workers), the Souk des Potiers (pottery), and the textile market; the Sfaxian pottery tradition (terracotta storage jars for olive oil — the traditional amphorae shape still produced in the workshops of the Medina souk, adapted from the Punic pottery tradition of the Carthaginian period; the painted majolica-style dishes with the typical Sfaxian fish and olive branch motifs); the Medina cloth merchants selling the traditional Sfaxian cotton weaves, the mergoum flatweave rugs and the fouta (the striped bath towel that is Tunisia's finest export textile).
The Ksar (the double rampart walls of the Sfax Medina — the outer wall constructed in the 9th century and the inner wall reinforced to the 17th century; the 9th-century Aghlabid walls of Sfax are the most complete example of Aghlabid military architecture in Tunisia; the Bab Diwan (the principal city gate on the north side — the triple-arched gateway with the Koranic inscriptions and the defensive towers; the gate opens onto the modern Avenue Hedi Chaker, where the contrast between the 9th-century stone gateway and the modern city creates the most dramatic architectural juxtaposition in Sfax); the walking circuit of the rampart top (accessible on the inner rampart wall, with the view down into the Medina on one side and the modern city on the other) is the finest urban walk in southern Tunisia.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Kerkennah Islands (the archipelago of 7 main islands 25 km east of Sfax in the Gulf of Gabès — 15,000 inhabitants on the two main islands of Gharbi and Chergui; the islands are entirely flat (maximum elevation 13 m), covered with palm trees (400,000 date palms on Kerkennah), olive trees, eucalyptus and the traditional Kerkennah aloe hedges used as field boundaries; the ferry from Sfax port (SONATRAK ferry service, 1h15 crossing, multiple daily departures from 7am; the crossing passes over the shallow Gulf of Gabès — the shallowest sea in Tunisia, with waters 10-20 m deep supporting the most productive traditional fishing grounds in North Africa); the Kerkennah island culture is the most traditional in coastal Tunisia — the Arabic dialect, the fishing techniques, the cuisine and the architecture are distinct from the mainland).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Charfia (the traditional Kerkennah fish trap system — a uniquely Kerkennah invention using woven palm frond fences driven into the sandy sea floor in a V-shape funnel, with a basket trap (the gargoulette) at the apex; the fish swim along the V-fence wall and into the basket where they are unable to reverse direction; the charfia traps cover hundreds of metres of the Kerkennah shallows and are the most distinctive visual element of the island's seascape; the charfia technique is thought to date from the Phoenician period; the species caught include the Kerkennah sea bass (loup), the daurade royale (gilthead bream), and the octopus (the Kerkennah poulpe is the most prized in Tunisia — the traditional Kerkennah octopus fishing method (the terracotta pot method: clay pots placed on the sandy bottom at night are occupied by sleeping octopus which are collected in the morning) produces the finest octopus in the Mediterranean.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSidi Fredj (the finest beach on Kerkennah — a 3 km stretch of white sand on the northern coast of Chergui Island; the water depth at Sidi Fredj is exceptional for swimming: the Gulf of Gabès shallows mean the water at Sidi Fredj is knee-deep 200 m from shore, warm (28-30°C in summer — the Gulf of Gabès is the warmest sea in the Mediterranean) and perfectly clear over the white sand; the beach has no development beyond a small fishing village — the most unspoiled white sand beach in Tunisia accessible by ferry from a major city); the Kerkennah seafood lunch (grilled loup de mer, the charfia-caught sea bass, served with Kerkennah olive oil and the Sfaxian felfel (the dried red chilli paste that is the condiment of the Sfax region; different from harissa — less hot, more fruity).
The return ferry to Sfax (evening ferry, 1h15) and the Sfax restaurant quarter (the rue Mongi Slim and the adjacent streets south of the Medina have the finest traditional Sfaxian restaurants in Tunisia; the Sfaxian cuisine is distinct from the more tourist-oriented cooking of Tunis and the coast: the tajine sfaxienne (not the Moroccan clay pot — the Sfaxian baked egg and meat gratin in a tile-lined oven, entirely different from the Moroccan version), the kamounia (slow-braised beef in a cumin and tomato sauce, the most characteristic Sfaxian meat dish — the name comes from kamoun, cumin, the defining spice of Sfaxian cooking), and the samsa (the fried triangular pastry filled with tuna, capers and harissa — the Sfaxian fried pastry that is distinct from the Tunisian brik).
El Jem (65 km north of Sfax — the ancient city of Thysdrus, now the town of El Jem, containing the most impressive Roman monument in Africa and arguably the best-preserved Roman amphitheatre in the world after the Colosseum; the El Jem amphitheatre (built c. 238 AD, seating 35,000 spectators — the third-largest Roman amphitheatre ever built; the building is 148 m long by 122 m wide and 36 m tall; the external ring of arches is almost entirely intact unlike the Colosseum's partial ruin; the gladiatorial arena floor and the underground corridors for animal cages, gladiator preparation rooms and trapdoor mechanisms are accessible; designated UNESCO World Heritage in 1979) was built by the African proconsul Gordian I (who briefly proclaimed himself Emperor of Rome from El Jem in 238 AD before his suicide after his co-emperor Gordian II was defeated in battle).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe El Jem Archaeological Museum (in the converted 19th-century Ottoman palace adjacent to the amphitheatre — the collection of Roman mosaics from the ancient villas of Thysdrus is one of the finest in the Mediterranean, second in Africa only to the Bardo National Museum in Tunis; the Thysdrus mosaics (the prosperity of Roman Thysdrus from olive oil export wealth produced an extraordinary concentration of wealthy villas, each with elaborate floor mosaic programmes; the Villa of the Months (the mosaic depicting the 12 months with their agricultural activities and seasonal symbols), the Venus mosaic and the Orpheus mosaic are the finest individual pieces; the museum provides the essential context for understanding what the El Jem amphitheatre meant to the wealthy olive oil town that financed it).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThysdrus (the Roman city beneath the modern El Jem town — the visible remains of the city that surrounded the amphitheatre: the smaller amphitheatre (the earlier, smaller amphitheatre predating the large one, now mostly underground but partially excavated at the southern edge of town), the Roman street grid visible in the modern town plan, and the underground Roman villas (the archaeological excavations beneath several modern houses have revealed intact Roman mosaic floors and wall paintings accessible in situ as a second museum component); the olive press installations (the massive stone olive press bases visible in the open-air excavation — the mechanical olive presses of Thysdrus that produced the surplus wealth to build the amphitheatre are the most direct physical evidence of the link between olive oil and Roman urban prosperity in Africa).
Return to Sfax from El Jem (1h by bus or taxi) and the Sfax olive oil culture — the Sfaxian olive oil tasting (the cooperative olive oil producers of the Sfax region produce extra-virgin olive oil from the Chemlali de Sfax olive variety — the indigenous Tunisian olive cultivar, resistant to drought, producing an oil with higher polyphenol content than most Italian or Spanish olive oils; the oil has a characteristically robust bitter and peppery finish that is the mark of high polyphenol content; the Sfax oil cooperative shops near the Medina sell direct from the producer at prices well below supermarket export prices); the Marché Central (the covered market of Sfax with the fish, vegetable and spice sections).