Impressions of El Kef
Municipality
View of the city
Coffee Bou Makhlouf
Part of the wall which surrounded the city in past times
Flora
Theme park
Mosque El Qadriya
Mosque Ali bin Saleh
People gather on Thursday's market
Crafted cushions and carpets
Grilling pepper
Tunisian fast food Mlewi from the Thursday's market
At the museum
Researcher Franzi in the museum
Traditional women clothes in the museum
Old working tools in the museum
El Kef is the capital of its eponymous Tunisian governorate. It is located in the northwestern part of the country in the Tunisian-Algerian border region. However, beyond Tunisia’s touristic regions, the small town provides interesting insights into Tunisia’s cultural and historical heritage.
Ruins of a Roman bath (ḥammām) evoke the country’s antique past, while the Kasbah (qaṣba), a fort with a view over the whole town, goes back to the time of Ottoman rule.
An old synagogue in the centre of El Kef as well as a Jewish and a Christian cemetery are for their part a witness of the former times’ religious diversity.
In addition to the mosque, the mausoleum of the local saint Sidi Bou Makhlouf (Sīdi Bū Maxlūf) is one of the holy places people visit even nowadays.
While historical traces are omnipresent, professional graffiti arts embellishes roads, paths and public places showing the modern side of El Kef.
El Kef and its graffiti art(ists)
Graffiti of Bou Makhlouf
Graffiti of a dove by Wiss
Graffiti calligraphy I
Graffiti calligraphy II
Graffiti calligraphy III
Graffiti of an old man
Graffiti of a Berber woman
Kefian proverb
Graffiti on a park entrance
Graffiti of old men playing basketball
Ornated vase
Artist Wiss in front of his graffiti of an eye
Some Kefian artists even integrate the town’s past into their work, using El Kef’s former Latin name Sicca Veneria as a graffiti motif:
