Brick facades
Raised geometric patterns.
Rawen Ab — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rawen Abbassi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rawen Ab — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tsaag Valren — CC BY-SA 4.0
An old quarter at the heart of Tozeur, the oasis town of south-western Tunisia on the edge of the desert, famous for architecture like no other: facades of yellow brick laid with great care into raised geometric patterns of diamonds, stars and squares, whose shadows shift as the sun moves. You walk narrow lanes, some of them covered, between heavy wooden doors with iron knockers and arches of the same brick. The motifs echo those on local carpets and textiles, so the whole quarter reads like a tapestry in brick. Around the medina spreads Tozeur's great oasis of hundreds of thousands of palms, watered by springs and channels and famous for Deglet Nour dates. You can explore it on foot or by horse-drawn carriage, among palms with fruit trees growing beneath them. Wandering is free, and the best times are early morning and late afternoon, when the light softens on the brick. Summers are extremely hot, so winter and spring are the best seasons.
Raised geometric patterns.
Old doors and knockers.
Deglet Nour palms.
Ouled el Hadef quarter, central Tozeur
October to April, when the weather is mild. Summers are extremely hot.
