The village of Sidi Bou Saïd is one of the prettiest I have yet seen and it is no wonder it is on the itinerary of practically every guided tour offered in the region. There is something special about the azure views of the Mediterranean Sea and a luminous quality to the light which I cannot quite describe, the white buildings with striking blue details, the brightly coloured flowers everywhere.
I fully understand why many people came here and decided to stay, from mystics to world-famous artists, authors, philosophers or politicians. I was certainly reluctant to leave myself.
Sidi Bou Saïd is located on Djebel El Manar on the Gulf of Tunis, approximately 20 kilometres from the city. Djebel El Manar can be translated as mountain of fire or lighthouse mountain and it held an important role as a lighthouse site as far back in time as the Phoenician Carthage.
In the 13th century, Sufi scholar Abu Saïd ibn Khalef ibn Yahia Al-Tamimi Al-Baji, known as Sidi Bou Saïd, settled here due to spirituality he found in the location. He created a place of meditation, prayer and teaching and after he passed, a mausoleum was built in his honour. The village grew around this site as more and more people began to visit, and the village was named in honour of the famous scholar.
Whether you are religious or spiritual and believe in mystic concepts or not, Iʼll wager you will be similarly enchanted by this village, as have been numerous other visitors over the centuries.
The famous blue and white colouring is said to have been popularized by French painter and musicologist, Baron Rodolphe François d’Erlanger. He specialised in Tunisian and Arabic music and had a residence in Sidi Bou. The residence, a palace called Ennejma Ezzahra, was later turned into a museum, the Centre des musiques arabes et méditerranéennes.
Baron d’Erlanger not only supported the arts but was also a force in the efforts towards the 1915 decree which granted the village and its blue and white design heritage status. Even though I found some sources stating that he invented the look, other sources say that the design was in use long before he moved to Sidi Bou Saïd (which seems more plausible to me, to be honest). In any case, the decree helped preserve the look that now seems to be every tourist’s favourite.
There are many other villages and towns in the Med that are renowned for their blue and white design. Sidi Bou Saïd is different, though, as the Arabic-Islamic architecture used here sets it apart from those other famous places.
According to the documentation for the inscription of Sidi Bou Saïd on the tentative list, it is the combination of religious and worldly heritage, the adaptation to unique topographical features as well as the constant relationship with the sea that create an “ensemble of great diversity, reflecting the styles and influences that have succeeded one another throughout Tunisia and continue to this day”.
The village also holds special importance as a site of longstanding cultural exchange and ongoing spiritual and artistic influence.
(See: https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6765/)
Sadly, I only got to spend a very brief time in Sidi Bou Saïd and would have liked to explore further. Maybe I’ll have a chance to return one day.
