Colour news
FestivalsPhotos of the weekColour of the yearEvery 2027 Color of the Year We Know So FarFashion and designThe 8 Colors Fashion Girls are Building Their Fall Wardrobes AroundFestivalsIn India, Holi welcomes spring with a Festival of ColorsColour of the yearTom’s Watch Bar Partners With Dodgers Fan Club Pantone 294Craft and textilesMore clues to Maya blueCraft and textilesDesigners Say These 6 Unexpected Paint Colors Can Make Any Room Feel Instantly Warmer and More InvitingCraft and textilesMacron and UYBA Volley present the new 2026/27 Game SetCraft and textilesThe Souls I (Grafix Gold, Topaz, Chilli Red) (2010) by Damien Hirst - For SaleCraft and textilesBalenciaga Spring/Summer2027 Runway Dips Into ColourFestivalsPhotos of the weekColour of the yearEvery 2027 Color of the Year We Know So FarFashion and designThe 8 Colors Fashion Girls are Building Their Fall Wardrobes AroundFestivalsIn India, Holi welcomes spring with a Festival of ColorsColour of the yearTom’s Watch Bar Partners With Dodgers Fan Club Pantone 294Craft and textilesMore clues to Maya blueCraft and textilesDesigners Say These 6 Unexpected Paint Colors Can Make Any Room Feel Instantly Warmer and More InvitingCraft and textilesMacron and UYBA Volley present the new 2026/27 Game SetCraft and textilesThe Souls I (Grafix Gold, Topaz, Chilli Red) (2010) by Damien Hirst - For SaleCraft and textilesBalenciaga Spring/Summer2027 Runway Dips Into Colour
Rang

The blue and white village

Sidi Bou Said

A clifftop village near Tunis where every house is white and every door, grille and shutter is blue.

Sidi Bou Said, Tunisie
Photo: Habib M'henni, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Sidi Bou Said is sidi bou said blue

Sidi Bou Said sits on a headland above the Gulf of Tunis, close to the ruins of Carthage. It is named after a Sufi holy man buried here in the 13th century. The whole village keeps two colours: white walls, and blue for the studded doors, the window grilles and the box-like wooden balconies. The scheme is tied to Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger, a French-born painter and scholar of Arab music who settled here in the early 20th century. He pressed for the village to be protected, and a decree of 1915 did so. Painters including Paul Klee visited around the same time. Pink bougainvillea and the sea complete the picture.

Sidi Bou Said blue#2D6FC4Limewash white#F7F6F2Bougainvillea pink#D6337AGulf blue#3F8FB5

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Sidi Bou Said

BlueA primary colour seen in the sky and sea, used since ancient times in art and dyeWhiteThe lightest colour, seen in snow, milk and chalk, and opposite to black
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Sidi Bou Said" on Wikipedia. If you know Sidi Bou Said and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
🇮🇳 The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.🇮🇳 Town of mud-resist block printBagruA small town near Jaipur where the Chhipa community prints cotton by hand in indigo, black and red.🇮🇳 Prayer flags over a high desertLehStrings of five-coloured prayer flags and white stupas stand out against the brown mountains of Ladakh.🇵🇰 City of saints and blue tilesMultanBrick shrines of Sufi saints are banded with blue, turquoise and white tiles, a craft still alive in the city.🇰🇷 Busan's pastel hillsideGamcheonA steep neighbourhood of small box-like houses painted in pastels, turned into an art village in 2009.🇲🇦 The Blue PearlChefchaouenA mountain town in northern Morocco whose lanes, steps and doors are washed in many shades of blue.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly palette

Every Monday: seven colours you may not know, what the world is wearing this week, and one idea about colour.