Kairouan in Tunisia

6 July 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Great Mosque - prayer hall © flickr.com - Dennis Jarvis/cc-by-sa-2.0

Great Mosque – prayer hall © flickr.com – Dennis Jarvis/cc-by-sa-2.0

Kairouan, also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan, is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu’awiya (reigned 661–680); this is when it became an important centre for Sunni Islamic scholarship and Quranic learning, attracting Muslims from various parts of the world. The Mosque of Uqba is situated in the city. In 2014, the city had about 187,000 inhabitants.   read more…

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