(cont.)
Around the port of Houmt Souk one could see great quantities of earthenware jars in terracota used for catching octopus ... a system which is still commonly used in some areas of Portugal.
Guellala, just 10 km from the capital reminded me of some areas in Alentejo (southern part of Portugal) with its handicraft potery production.
We headed to the Museum of the Patrimony, which was very well organised in regards to the treasures of the Tunisian tradition divided in several pavillions each of which dedicated to a different cultural aspect, from the mosaic to the caligraphy, festivities, customs and local crafts to name just a few.
I had been looking forward to seeing some Berber ghorfa complexes for a while, so when I realised there would be an opportunity to visit those stacked multi storey vaulted architecural rooms used for storing grain on one of the proposed guided tours I was overjoyed. We would head to Medenine first, where some of those ghorfas were located and then to Chenini, a ruined Berber village in the Tataouine district.
On the way there we stopped at El-Grabatt, which really impressed me, though not as much as Chott el-Djerid which I had seen months before. Still ... the constrasting sights were overwhelming ...
The Medenine ghorfas didn't impress me that much ... I don't exactly know why ... it might have been the fact that I had anticipated them to be different or maybe it was simply the "touristic" type of around environment, which spoiled the whole atmosphere ...
Medenine said to have been the most important trading centre in the South in pre-colonial times, having attracted merchants from all over North Africa ... stood there ... "colourless" shy ... as if tormented by the glory of the past.
A lot more interesting was the ruined Berber village of Chenini located on a hilltop, whose oldest granary structures on the hillside can be traced back to the 12th century and some of which are still being used to store grain for the villages living in the valley below.
In the middle of that muddy colour ksar a prominent white Mosque stood out ... imposing itself ... demanding respect ...
The striking similarity between some of the Berber women and myself naturally caught people's attention (mine and theirs) ... not much differently from what had happened back at the troglodyte village of Matmata, where some of the local people even attempted to talk to me in their dialect (as if I could understand ...).
The reality is I felt "at home" and would not have minded staying longer ... I felt there would have been a lot more to "explore" regarding the architecture of the menzels ... the weaving ateliers ... the wells ... some historical artifacts ... and even the "concept of death" ...
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