Ribat of Sousse, Fortified monastery in Sousse, Tunisia
The Ribat of Sousse is a fortified monastery built from stone walls roughly 38 meters on each side, featuring round towers at three corners and a square tower topped with a cylindrical structure. Inside, there is a prayer hall, various chambers, and a spiral staircase that rises through multiple levels.
This fortification was built in the 8th century during the Aghlabid dynasty and served both religious and military purposes. After the capture of Melite in 870, materials from Byzantine churches were incorporated into the construction.
The prayer hall inside this structure is one of the oldest surviving mosques in North Africa, showing how religious spaces were designed within early Islamic fortifications. The architecture reflects how prayer and defense coexisted in a single building.
Visitors can climb the spiral staircase inside the cylindrical tower to explore different levels and reach the rooftop. From the top, you get a good view over the Medina and the surrounding city.
Above the doorway of the cylindrical tower is a marble inscription dated 821, which is the oldest surviving Islamic monumental text in Tunisia. This inscription shows early forms of Arabic script and reveals how people marked important places in the earliest centuries of Islamic civilization in North Africa.
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