Gafsa's old quarter has the feel of a Tunisian provincial medina going about its own business without much attention to visitors. The lanes are narrow, the whitewashed walls are slightly worn, and the activity is everyday rather than performative — women carrying groceries, men drinking tea in the small cafes near the mosque, the occasional workshop with a carpenter or metalworker visible through an open door. It is not polished, and that is the point.
The medina is most naturally explored on foot in an hour or two, moving between the Roman pools at its lower end, the kasbah above, and the small market streets in between. The Great Mosque, though not open to non-Muslim visitors, anchors the quarter and its minaret serves as a useful landmark for navigation. The souks here deal mostly in practical goods — fabric, household items, foodstuffs — rather than crafts aimed at tourists. If you want to buy something, the argan oil and locally grown dates are the things worth looking for.