Kairouan Governorate · Tunisia
Kairouan travel guide
Kairouan is a city in Kairouan Governorate, Tunisia, home to about 187,000 people.
- Best months
- February to May and October to December
- Nearest airport
- NBE53 km · Enfidha - Hammamet International Airport
- Currency
- TNDTunisian dinar
- Time zone
- Africa/Tunis
- Language
- Arabic
Things to do
What to see and do in Kairouan
See
The old Medina with its narrow passageways and streets is in general a nice place to just wander around aimlessly. If it looks familiar it may well be as it was used in Raiders of the Lost Ark to double as Cairo. For those interested in Islamic teachings there are several madrasas, or Islamic schools, in the centre of town that are open for visitors. Three communities coexist here: the Bedouins, the Berbers, the Arabs. You can tell the houses apart by the doors: ring doorknockers, the hands of fatimas, or just Arabic script. The number of rings or hands denote also the number of families in the same house. Green doors are mosques.
- Great Mosque of Kairouan
- Mosque of the Three Doors
- Bi'r Barouta
- Maison de Gouveneur
- Aghlabid Basins
- Zaouia of Sidi Abid el-Ghariani
- Mosque of Ansar
- Mosque Al Bey
- Sidi Amor Abada Museum
- Raqqada National Museum of Islamic art
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
When to go
The best time to visit Kairouan
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Kairouan are February to May and October to December. July is the warmest month, with average highs of 37 °C; October is the wettest, with about 51 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Kairouan: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Enfidha - Hammamet International Airport (NBE), about 53 km from the city centre in a straight line; Monastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport (MIR, 60 km) and Sfax Thyna International Airport (SFA, 120 km) are also within reach.
Getting around
The Medina is best explored on foot, partially to absorb the atmosphere and partially because some areas are inaccessible to anything bigger. The main street that links the Gate of Martyrs (south) to the Gate of Tunis (northwest) is rather touristic. Many of the shops near the main mosque will tempt you in with views over the complex, expect to have a look around the shop on the way out, if you don't buy anything a small donation would be polite.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
NBE · Enfidha - Hammamet International Airport
MIR · Monastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport
SFA · Sfax Thyna International Airport
Questions
Kairouan: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Kairouan?
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Kairouan are February to May and October to December. July is the warmest month, with average highs of 37 °C; October is the wettest, with about 51 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Kairouan?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Enfidha - Hammamet International Airport (NBE), about 53 km from the city centre in a straight line; Monastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport (MIR, 60 km) and Sfax Thyna International Airport (SFA, 120 km) are also within reach.
What currency is used in Kairouan?
Tunisian dinar (TND).
Nearby
Destinations near Kairouan
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.