At the end of the nineteenth century, the French writer Guy de Maupassant expresses in his book "La vie errante" (The Wandering Life), his fascination with the majestic architecture of the Great Mosque of Kairouan as well as the effect created by countless columns: "The unique harmony of this temple consists in the proportion and the number of these slender shafts upholding the building, filling, peopling, and making it what it is, create its grace and greatness. Their colorful multitude gives the eye the impression of unlimited". Early in the twentieth century, the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke describes his admiration for the impressive minaret: