Medenine Attractions

Chief town of the governorate of Médenine

The little administrative and market town of Médenine is - like Tataouine - a good center from which to visit the hill villages in the surrounding area.

Originally Médenine was an important staging point on the caravan route from the interior of Africa. During the French protectorate it was a garrison town and the administrative center of southern Tunisia.

The town originally consisted of an assemblage of numerous ksour (fortified storehouses), with a total of over 6,000 ghorfas. In these ksour (singular ksar) the semi-nomadic families kept their possessions while they went on their wanderings, each family having its own ghorfa (store-room, granary). These little barrel-vaulted cells were built side by side and one over the other in honeycomb-like blocks up to six storys high.