Sfax: Tunisia's least touristy medina

Tunisia's second city, Sfax houses a less touristy medina compared to Tunis or Sousse.

The medina, less touristy than Tunis, is comfortably explored by taxi or local bus.

The Medina of Sfax, ringed by ninth-century walls nearly completely intact, remains one of North Africa's best-preserved medinas precisely because of its lesser tourist influx.

Steps away, the Great Mosque of Sfax, founded in the ninth century, remains one of the old city's oldest religious buildings.

Heading toward the port, you visit the Dar Jellouli Museum, a traditional palace displaying decorative arts and period Tunisian handicrafts.

Toward evening, medina markets sell olive oil, the region of Sfax's main export product since Roman times.

The walls of Sfax's medina, built in the ninth century and still nearly entirely intact, rank among North Africa's best-preserved medieval Islamic fortifications.

The region around Sfax has produced high-quality olive oil for centuries, an economic mainstay that made the city the principal commercial centre of southern Tunisia since Roman times, exporting throughout the Mediterranean.