Skifa Kahla

The Skifa Kahla, the "Dark Vestibule," is the only land entrance to the medina and the most photographed landmark in Mahdia. The vaulted tunnel cuts through what was once a much longer fortified passage, built by the Fatimids in the early tenth century to defend their new capital.

Pass beneath the arch in the late afternoon when the light turns the limestone honey-coloured and the silk-weavers begin to roll up their looms on Rue Sidi Jaber. On Friday mornings the square outside fills with a small market.

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A story
The original gate was forty-four metres long with portcullises every few metres, designed so that an attacking force could be sealed inside the tunnel and crushed from above. Most of it was demolished after the Spanish withdrawal in 1554; the surviving stub is still the heaviest piece of military architecture in the medina.