Tunis Village

Tunis sits on a ridge above Lake Qarun and owes its character to Evelyne Porret, a Swiss potter who settled here in the 1960s and opened a school teaching village children to throw and glaze. Several generations later the village has dozens of working potteries run by families trained in that line, and a distinct local style of bright glazes and painted birds and fish. Around the potteries a second layer has grown: mud-brick guesthouses with domed roofs, gardens of olive and bougainvillea, and a weekend trade from Cairo that comes for the quiet and the lake view. An annual pottery festival in November fills the lanes. It is a made place rather than an old one, and the architecture is a modern vernacular revival, but the craft is genuinely local and genuinely practised.

The main sights

• Working family potteries - throwing, glazing and firing across the village.
• The pottery school - the teaching workshop the village grew out of.
• Mud-brick domed guesthouses - a modern vernacular built for the setting.
• The ridge view over Lake Qarun - the lake and desert from above.

When to go

October to April, and the pottery festival in November if you want the village at full tilt. Weekends bring Cairo visitors and fill the guesthouses; weekdays are calm. A day trip works, but an overnight gets you the lake at dawn.

Practical notes

It is small and can be walked in an hour, so the appeal is staying rather than sightseeing. Weekend prices for rooms are high by Egyptian standards. Some potteries are set up mainly for visitors and the work varies in quality. There is no public transport and a car is effectively required.

Nearby

Lake Qarun is below the ridge; Wadi El Rayan lies south-west across the desert.