Borj El Kebir

The Ottoman fort, also called Kasbah, is a fortress that was erected at the end of the 16th century on the site of a former Fatimid palace and is considered one of the finest specimens of Ottoman military architecture.

Based on a quadrangular plan and later equipped with corner bastions, the building is surrounded by a powerful wall originally pierced with a single entrance (after its reassignment for use as a prison, another access was built in the 19th century). This door gives access, by a vaulted and bent passage, to a courtyard on which rooms, also vaulted, open.
At the southeast corner of this courtyard, an oratory of earlier construction which has been saved and integrated into the building.
From the terraced walkway, there is a very beautiful view of the end of the Cap Mahdia promontory and, closer to the monument, of the basin of an ancient port that some specialists date back to the Punic period.

If you were at the Great Mosque, Take the road to the sea, towards the ruins of the old basins of the arsenals and the palace of the emir nearby, rises the imposing mass of Borj el Kébir. Going up on the terrace you can admire a very beautiful view which dominates the whole city.

Open every day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. between mid-September and March, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in April and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. between May and mid-September.

Entrance fees: 7 TND

Photo rights: 1 TND.