Governor's House, Kairouan

[expedition_retirement]

During our free time in Kairouan, we were wandering the medina, taking in the sights, when we were approached by a man who pointed to my camera and offered to show us some interesting things to photograph. While we were suspicious of his motives, he was quite insistent, and promised we wouldn't be disappointed. While we had reservations, we ended up following him, and ended up quite happy we did.

One of the places he took us was the Governor's House. Formerly the home of the local governors, it now houses a store selling local homemade carpets (which I think was part of the motivation for our guide: I think he might get kickbacks when people buy carpets). However, what made it special was the architecture of the building. As we were lead through the building, we found ourselves gawking at the gloriously beautiful ceilings. It is clear that this building was built to impress.

In addition to the ceilings, there were many other architectural elements that were eye catching as well. In spite of the carpets that were laid out on almost every surface, this was still a stunning space, and I was really glad we overcame our suspicions and followed our guide.

The final surprise was when they took us up to the building's rooftop. The rooftop was nicely decorated with ceramics and potted plants. And the views overlooking the medina were also quite lovely.

The lesson here is that sometimes risks are worth taking, and had we refused to accept the invitation to follow this man, we would have missed a wonderful experience.