Back to Search

Walls and Kasbah of Sousse
(أسوار وقصبة سوسة)

Title	Walls and Kasbah of Sousse
Title Original	أسوار وقصبة سوسة
Author	Behind the boy (who is the supervisor of the works in the tower).
Author Original	خلف الفتى وهو المشرف على الأعمال في البرج
Type	Other
Language	Undetermined
Digital	Yes
Manuscript	No
Library:	Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID	monument;ISL;tn;Mon01;23;ar
Library Location	Sousse, Medina, Tunisia
Notes	The perimeter of the Sousse city wall is 2250 m and encloses an area of up to 32 hectares. The wall was built with salvaged stones, topped with a barrier with circular balconies, and a passage for soldiers built over deep, semi-cylindrical, covered arches, the openings of whose arches point toward the interior of the city. When the wall leans against the rock wall of the site in its high parts, we notice the presence of two successive floors of nodules. Rectangular towers support the wall from the outside, and their height sometimes exceeds the height of the curtain walls by four meters. The walls were open with three gates: Bab al-Bahr, Bab al-Qibli, and Bab al-Gharbi. As for the Kasbah, it is located at the highest point of the site, at the southwestern corner of the wall. Al-Kasbah: If we exclude all recent additions, the total area of the castle reaches 7,740 square meters, of which 2,955 square meters are located outside the city wall. Today, the oldest part is located in a section attached to the Antiquities Museum in Sousse. It is organized around an inner courtyard surrounded by corridors covered by semi-cylindrical vaults. The Kasbah also includes a lighthouse attributed by al-Bakri to the boy’s successor, a slave who was freed by the Amir al-Aghlabi and charged with supervising its construction. It is 30 meters high and consists of two successive square towers. The top of the castle is reached through a staircase built deep into the wall. The middle section includes four successive rooms, with ceilings in the form of perpendicular or semi-cylindrical vaults. As for the Rabat Tower and Khalaf Tower, they rise respectively 27 m and 77 m above sea level. They are arranged on a north-eastern corridor axis in a way that helps guide ships at night with the fire of the Khalaf Tower, which is visible first, then with the fire of the second tower (the Rabat Tower). The restoration of the walls continued and three gates were added to the old ones: the New Gate in 1280 AH/1860 AD, the Mountain Gate and the Fenika Gate. Today, the Kasbah houses the Archaeological Museum of the city of Sousse.
Sample Text	Jamila Binous “The Walls and Kasbah of Sousse” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;tn;Mon01;23;ar

View in source Museum With No Frontiers Museum With No Frontiers - Ottoman library catalog search

Museum With No Frontiers

Walls and Kasbah of Sousse

(أسوار وقصبة سوسة)

Author Behind the boy (who is the supervisor of the works in the tower).

Author Original خلف الفتى وهو المشرف على الأعمال في البرج

Type Other

Language Undetermined

Digital Yes

Manuscript No

Library Museum With No Frontiers

Record ID monument;ISL;tn;Mon01;23;ar

Library Location Sousse, Medina, Tunisia

Notes The perimeter of the Sousse city wall is 2250 m and encloses an area of up to 32 hectares. The wall was built with salvaged stones, topped with a barrier with circular balconies, and a passage for soldiers built over deep, semi-cylindrical, covered arches, the openings of whose arches point toward the interior of the city. When the wall leans against the rock wall of the site in its high parts, we notice the presence of two successive floors of nodules. Rectangular towers support the wall from the outside, and their height sometimes exceeds the height of the curtain walls by four meters. The walls were open with three gates: Bab al-Bahr, Bab al-Qibli, and Bab al-Gharbi. As for the Kasbah, it is located at the highest point of the site, at the southwestern corner of the wall. Al-Kasbah: If we exclude all recent additions, the total area of the castle reaches 7,740 square meters, of which 2,955 square meters are located outside the city wall. Today, the oldest part is located in a section attached to the Antiquities Museum in Sousse. It is organized around an inner courtyard surrounded by corridors covered by semi-cylindrical vaults. The Kasbah also includes a lighthouse attributed by al-Bakri to the boy’s successor, a slave who was freed by the Amir al-Aghlabi and charged with supervising its construction. It is 30 meters high and consists of two successive square towers. The top of the castle is reached through a staircase built deep into the wall. The middle section includes four successive rooms, with ceilings in the form of perpendicular or semi-cylindrical vaults. As for the Rabat Tower and Khalaf Tower, they rise respectively 27 m and 77 m above sea level. They are arranged on a north-eastern corridor axis in a way that helps guide ships at night with the fire of the Khalaf Tower, which is visible first, then with the fire of the second tower (the Rabat Tower). The restoration of the walls continued and three gates were added to the old ones: the New Gate in 1280 AH/1860 AD, the Mountain Gate and the Fenika Gate. Today, the Kasbah houses the Archaeological Museum of the city of Sousse.

Sample Text Jamila Binous “The Walls and Kasbah of Sousse” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;tn;Mon01;23;ar