Tunisia
In the summer of 2002, between the second and third semesters of my MA I escaped fulltime employment and flew to Tunisia in Northern Africa for a 2-week journey around the country. I was travelling on my own and it was quite a lonely trip. My French is very sketchy at best and my knowledge of Arabic is non-existent and the local Tunisians spoke very little English. Since the majority of people travel to Tunisia on package tours, either to relax on the beach or to fly around the country in convoys of white Toyota Land Cruisers, I only met two English speaking independent travellers.
Even so it was a really cool trip and I saw lots of amazing things. My journey consisted of a massive clockwise loop around the major sites, travelling by Louage (intercity taxis that leave when they’re full).
I have split the photos up into the stops on my route; starting in Monastir and ending in Tunis. I didn’t manage to get many photos of people because of the culture, but hope you like them anyway.
Monastir
A nice little beach town where I flew in and out of.
Sousse
A very touristy town with an amazing medina.
El Jem
An ancient roman colloseum.
Sfax
While Sfax is quite industrial it has another nice medina.
Jerba
An idillic little island renowned for pirates and being the Land of the Lotus Eaters.
Tatouine
Area in the South where hilltribes and trogoldytes created weird dwellings. Used as inspiration for the planet Tatooine in Star Wars.
Douz
A desert town on the edge of the Sahara where I went on an overnight camel trek with some Burber men.
Touzer
A large date producing oasis, with a town adorned with ornate brickwork.
El Kef
A mountain town with streets wrapped around the hill, topped with an impressive Ribat.
Dougga
A massive Roman site in the North, an ancient town of temples.
Tunis
Tunisia’s capital city.
