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Hi there from Port Yasmine en Hammamet!!

The first thing we did in Sfax was to visit the medina. The walls of the city of Sfax have been preserved.

The sea used to be besides the walls. During the French ruling a vary large part of the sea was covered with earth. Now the walls are situated at about one mile of the present harbour. Nowadays Sfax is the second city of Tunisia with around one million inhabitants.The new zone of the city was designed with straight streets that form large squared blocks in which we find beautiful buildings.

   

Right in the middle of the medine we find the big mosque of Sfax. We managed to get an image of the tower of the mosque but not exactly the one that the Archduke managed to take because now some taller houses are partly hiding the tower.

The medina is during the day always plenty of people, and one can tell that the authentical Tunisia can be felt at this place. There are relatively few tourist at Sfax and the city keeps well its identity.

Not far from the mosque we found the house of the Djelluli, which we were also searching. It is a very beautiful house that has been converted into a museum.

In our working documents we had Kasr Arbat as one of the objectives in Safx; however according to the comments of the responsable person at the museum situated at the Kasbah, it could be a mistake. He is not aware of any buildings from the Byzantine empire at Sfax nor any buildings havins had round towers.

Moncef Ayoub took us to the Sidi Mansour mosque and marabout. There one can see the remains of a very old lighthouse.

   

http:// youtu.be/ hvL8FG6C_xo

Al so it was interesting to see, on our way to Sidi Mansour, a huge zone of the sea that has been filled with earth. Basically the same process that was done by the french just in front of Sfax is now replicated just a few miles at the north of Sfax.

From Sfax we took the ferry that goes to eh Kerkenah Islands. We arrived at the port of Sidi Youssef.

Just after we went towards El Attaya, at the northest point of the islands, we ate at the restaurant of Najet, y we stopped at the edge of the island in order to see the little island of Gribdi, just that same as the Archduke did.

   

http:// youtu.be/ wcilDnvfRAQ

At El Attaya there is a quite large fishing harbour.

   

Going back south, and not far from El Attaya, we arrived at Bourge Lasar ( Burdj el Zars) which is placed besides the remains of an old roman town; a town that was known to do commerce with Pompeya.

   

The fort is in quite good condition, and the views from the top of the fort are beautiful. Both towards the sea and the land.

Finally we went bac to Sidi Youssef to take the boat back to Sfax at the time of the sunset.

Best wishes!!

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