Kairouan
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How it came to be
Kairouan sits in central Tunisia, roughly midway between the sea and the mountains. Around 670 the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi, serving the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya, chose the site for a military camp, which became the first Arab-Muslim base in the Maghreb.
The Aghlabid dynasty, which ruled from 800 to 909, made Kairouan its capital and rebuilt the Great Mosque in the 9th century. About 135 by 80 metres, with a 17-aisled hypostyle prayer hall and a three-storey minaret, it became the model for later mosques across the Maghreb. The Mosque of the Three Doors, built in 866, is considered the oldest known mosque with a sculpted facade, and the Aghlabid Basins outside the walls held 68,800 cubic metres of water.
In 1057 the Banu Hilal, sent by the Fatimid caliph, captured the city, and it never regained its former standing. After the political capital moved to Tunis in the 12th century, Kairouan remained the main holy city of the Maghreb. Its 54-hectare medina is enclosed by more than 3 km of walls.
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