 Hello from the old Medina of Sousa in Morocco. We say old Medina Medina Atiqa or Medina Qadima in Tunis. They say Bled Arabi the hometown of the Arab. That's where I am right now and we're going to take a stroll around the Sousa especially the old Medina in Sousa. We'll check some of the important monuments right here and we'll find out if Sousa is really worth a visit. One thing I know for sure it has a wonderful location. You can take so many great day trips from here. You can make your way to the Cairo one. It has a day trip. You can go to El Jem, explore the city of Monastir or you can just explore Sousa on its own. Before we get really inside the Medina I'm gonna go check the rebate of Sousa. It's one of the most popular monuments here. Like I explained in my previous video a rebate in North Africa or in the Islamic word is a sort of military fortress that serves military purposes but it's also used for prayers and the people who stay in the rebate are usually called the Murabitin. So that is the monument behind me. I'm gonna go check it out and see what that looks like from the inside. There's a security check point. Just got my ticket, quick security check and I am inside the rebate. It looks very similar to the rebate in Monastir. This one has two floors and on the first floor there are a bunch of rooms that you can see all around the first floor. They were used as a residence for the Murabitins who lived here in the rebate and then on the second floor they do have a prayer room and you can see behind me right there. Where is it? There is a watch tower and this rebate here in Sousa was the first construction of the first building that was built in Sousa before obviously the city, before the Grand Mosque. When this was built it was used for military purposes and as the city starts to get established the governor ordered to build the mosque and something interesting I'm going to show you later on that the mosque not too far from here does not actually have a minaret and first of all they ordered to build the mosque because there wasn't enough space for people to pray here especially for Friday prayer but what happened is they never built a minaret for the mosque and instead they used the watch tower both to watch activity on the water and protect the city but also for prayers which is pretty and that explains why the mosque does not have a minaret. So anyway so I'm going to walk around here and make my way up to the tower and see what it looks like from up there. It does look like this room behind me could very well be the prayer room. Very much looks like it. But again this was enough for the number of the Murabi teams living here but later on it wasn't enough for everyone who lived in the city. I can actually see the main wall of the ribat and right next to it there is the wall of the old Medina that was established right after and then outside of the walls of the Medina is the new city of Sousa and I feel like this is how it goes in most of the cities in North Africa. Inside the Medina you would either find the Qasbah residence for the governor or the ribat for military purposes it just depends. I can actually see the ocean further out and that's the watch tower. There are a few people up there so I guess it's time to make my way up there too. Wow the view is impeccable from up here you can actually see the water all the way and then there is the grand mosque which I now can see that it doesn't have a minaret and I think this is one of the very few times I see a mosque without a minaret but as I explained the watch tower is serving that purpose or there wasn't really a need for one. It's really neat to see. This room right here was used for ablution before prayers and there's actually a well right here and there's still I don't think you guys can see it but this is a well this is an actual well and there's actually water. I can see the water. I'm gonna shine some light with my phone so that you guys can see it but do you see there's actually water. And so the Murabitians used to fetch water from the well and then they sit right here to perform ablutions before praying and then right here and this one used to be the bathroom so they would fill the sink right here with water and then they would take their bath right there. It's super neat that the well is actually right there. It still has water. They are advertising a 3D augmented reality experience that you can try inside of the rebat but I think it's only available in the first half of the day from age to 12 I believe and it's basically a simulation of a battle between Assad even for us the warrior over there and the conquest of Sicily but that sounds like an interesting thing to try and this is the grand mosque that we were seeing from the watchtower. I think it's closed right now. They closed pretty early so we'll continue our adventure in the Medina today. It's not a super busy Medina but I also think probably because it's the Sunday and I noticed the fast food is that they do actually close pretty early. It could be just winter but around 8 p.m. try to find a place to to grab a bite to eat or something. The options are a little bit limited. They do have a lot of meat, jewellery, a lot of cafes. The same thing I noticed the same thing in the Medina, the old Medina of Tunis. There were a lot of gold sellers. It was incredible. I walked this way to show you a tea room that I found this morning that I really really liked. I wanted to show you guys this tea room. I sat here earlier and it was such a nice spot and funny thing what happened earlier when I showed up here I ordered the first tea, the second tea, mint tea and then I realized I didn't have enough cash to pay everything and I was like oh I don't have enough money but then the guy right here at the cafe he was very nice. I went to the ATM got some cash and then got back but I want to show you guys inside the the tea room. It's really cute. So cozy. They play traditional Arabic music. You can stay inside or you can stay outside and I think that's where they make food that's like the reception per se but the street is so nice and neatly decorated. I think if I were to stay here longer this would become my go-to place for sure. This is a traditional piece of clothing that a lot of Tunisian men wear and it's you basically just throw it on top of whatever you're wearing and it looks really nice. We're getting close to the season where a lot of Muslims will be performing Hajj or Umrah during Ramadan and so there are so many places around the Medina here in Tunis where they sell clothing for men and women who are going specifically to perform Hajj and Umrah because in Islam there are specific type of clothing that you should be wearing. I'm not going to get into the details but because I don't I'm not very knowledgeable there but they do sell it everywhere like even here. There are signs for Hajj Umrah. It's all around the Medina and I love seeing it. There's a lot of women with the go for either white or beige and then I think for men the type of clothing you should be wearing is a bit more particular a bit more straight. I think this is my favorite street to walk on here in the Medina. They do have a lot of dates. Dates are pretty common out here in Tunisia especially in the south. The dates are supposed to be really good. This is one of the markets right outside the walls of the old Medina. I checked this market I think two days ago. They do sell a lot of fruits vegetables and a lot of seafood so we gonna go inside and check it out. And it's probably not that busy because we're getting towards the end of the day but we'll see what we can find today. Got a lot of fruit and vegetables here. I actually bought a couple of things from here the other day and they have a lot of seafood. They do have a lot of fresh seafood. Obviously the city is by the ocean so they do get a lot of fresh seafood. I wish I had the place where I can cook and that would have been really nice but like I said it's a little bit empty now but here they do have a lot of vegetables. I do always notice that they do have a lot of fennels and they consume a lot of fennel. Oh my god this is beautiful very colorful or type of vegetables out here. I think it's just vegetables right here yep yep yep yep. We'll walk the other side. The vendors are wrapping up for the day especially you know seafood it has to be kept fresh. Now I'm going to make my way to the waterfront. I think there's even a port out here so I'm gonna see what's out there before the sun goes down. Susa you guys it's a beautiful city. This is the waterfront and it's actually right next to the port. You guys can see these pirate ships behind me. They actually do take people on tours on the water if it's something that you are interested in. That's what I read online but since it's the off-season right now I don't think they are working but there are also some small boats all the way there. The waterfront is right next to the port. I had my camera in hand because I was using the power bank to charge it and I got really nervous because last time when I was in Morocco actually just a few months ago I was in the robots me and my mom in the marina and some officers came up to me and they just asked me a lot of questions why are you filming what are you doing this for why do you have a lot of professional cameras can we see the footage on your camera and they ended up going through the footage on my camera and they even asked me to delete some videos on my camera because I was there were some private yachts that was not supposed to be filming stuff like that and it wasn't a good experience and it just left a bitter taste in my mouth so every time I'm filming I keep thinking about that but when I walked by the port I saw the officers and then I was like oh my gosh please not again but they ended up being really nice they just asked me what is this for is this for a media channel like a TV channel I know it's just for for me it's a personal thing and they were very nice about it they asked me where I'm from I sent them from Morocco and the officer was super nice and he just asked me you know you can walk around and take as many videos and photos as you want and that really was a relief because I don't need any more stories like that there's the person who just walked up to me about boat tours and apparently they are still operating and there's there was a boat that just left not too long ago so if you are in Sousa this time of the year keep that in mind you can still take a boat tour and I think it's incredible to be able to see the sunset on the water