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Tunis (Arabic: تونس Tūnis ⓘ) is the capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. As of 2020, it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casablanca and Algiers) and the eleventh-largest in the Arab world.
Oct 7, 2024 · Tunis, capital and largest city of Tunisia, on the northern African coast, between the western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean Sea. It was founded by the ancient Libyans and changed hands throughout history until becoming the capital of Tunisia upon independence in 1956.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Overview
- Land
- Relief
- Drainage
- Soils
- Climate
- Plant and animal life
- Ethnic groups
Tunisia, country of North Africa. Tunisia’s accessible Mediterranean Sea coastline and strategic location have attracted conquerors and visitors through the ages, and its ready access to the Sahara has brought its people into contact with inhabitants of the African interior.
According to Greek legend, Dido, a princess of Tyre, was the first outsider to settle among the native tribes of what is now Tunisia when she founded the city of Carthage in the 9th century bce. Although the story is certainly apocryphal, Carthage nonetheless grew into one of the great cities and preeminent powers of antiquity, and its colonies and entrepôts were scattered throughout the western Mediterranean region. Carthage fought a series of wars with its rival, Rome. Rome prevailed in the mid-2nd century bce, razed Carthage, and ruled the region for the following 500 years. In the 7th century Arab conquerors converted the native Berber (Amazigh) population of North Africa to Islam. The area was ruled by a succession of Islamic dynasties and empires until coming under French colonial rule in the late 19th century. After achieving independence in 1956, Tunisia pursued a progressive social agenda and sought to modernize its economy under two long-serving presidents, Habib Bourguiba and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. However, Tunisia remained an authoritarian state with an all-powerful ruling party and no significant institutions of representative government. (For a discussion of political changes in Tunisia in 2011, see Jasmine Revolution.)
Tunisia’s culture is highly diverse, in part because of long periods of Ottoman and then French rule but also because populations of Jews and Christians have lived among a Muslim majority for centuries. Similarly, the capital, Tunis, blends ancient Arab souks and mosques and modern-style office buildings into one of the most handsome and lively cities in the region. Other cities include Sfax (Ṣafāqis), Sousse (Sūsah), and Gabès (Qābis) on the fertile coast and Kairouan (Al-Qayrawān) and El-Kef (Al-Kāf) in the arid interior.
Tunisia’s people are renowned for their conviviality and easygoing approach to daily life, qualities that Albert Memmi captured in his 1955 autobiographical novel Pillar of Salt:
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Africa’s Physical Features
Tunisia is bounded by Algeria to the west and southwest, by Libya to the southeast, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east and north.
Tunisia is characterized by moderate relief. The Tunisian Dorsale, or High Tell, a southwest-northeast–trending mountain range that is an extension of the Saharan Atlas (Atlas Saharien) of Algeria, tapers off in the direction of the Sharīk (Cape Bon) Peninsula in the northeast, south of the Gulf of Tunis. The highest mountain, Mount Chambi (Al-Shaʿnabī), located near the centre of the Algerian border, rises to 5,066 feet (1,544 metres), while Mount Zaghwān (Zaghouan), about 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Tunis, reaches 4,249 feet (1,295 metres). Between the limestone peaks of the central Tunisian Dorsale and the mountains of the Northern Tell—which include the sandstone ridges of the Kroumirie Mountains in the northwest that reach elevations of 3,000 feet (900 metres)—and the Mogods, a mountain range running along the deeply indented coastline to the north, lies the Majardah (Medjerda) River valley, formed by a series of ancient lake basins covered with alluvium. This valley was once the granary of ancient Rome and has remained to this day the richest grain-producing region of Tunisia.
To the south of the Tunisian Dorsale lies a hilly region known as the Haute Steppe (High Steppes) in the west and the Basse Steppe (Low Steppes) in the east. These have elevations ranging from about 600 to 1,500 feet (180 to 460 metres) and are crossed by secondary ranges trending north-south. Farther south there is a series of chott (or shaṭṭ; salty lake) depressions. Large plains border the eastern coasts; south of Sousse lies Al-Sāḥil (Sahel) and south of Gabès is Al-Jifārah (Gefara) Plain. The extreme south is largely sandy desert, much of it part of the Great Eastern Erg of the Sahara.
The major drainage feature of the north is the Majardah River, the country’s only perennially flowing stream, which cuts the Majardah valley before emptying into the Gulf of Tunis, near the site of ancient Carthage. Farther south, streams are intermittent and largely localized in the form of wadis, which are subject to seasonal flooding and termina...
Tunisia’s most fertile soils are found in the well-watered intermontane valleys in the north, where rich sandy clay soils formed from alluvium or soils high in lime content cover the valley bottoms and plains. Aside from these and from the plains of the Haute Steppe region, where some clay soils of medium fertility may be found, soils in the rest o...
Tunisia is situated in the warm temperate zone between latitudes 37° and 30° N. In the north the climate is Mediterranean, characterized by mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers with no marked intervening seasons. This changes southward to semiarid conditions on the steppes and to desert in the far south. Saharan influences give rise to the sirocco, a seasonal hot, blasting wind from the south that can have a serious drying effect on vegetation.
Temperatures are moderated by the sea, being less extreme at Sousse on the coast, for example, than at Kairouan (Al-Qayrawān) inland. Temperatures at Sousse average 44 °F (7 °C) in January and 89 °F (32 °C) in August. Comparable temperatures at Kairouan are 40 °F (4 °C) in January and 99 °F (37 °C) in August. Africa’s highest temperature, about 131 °F (55 °C), was recorded in Kebili, a town in central Tunisia.
The vegetation and animal life of the country are affected by these erratic climatic conditions. From north to south, the cork oak forest of the Kroumirie Mountains, with its fern undergrowth sheltering wild boars, gives way to scrub and steppes covered with esparto grass and populated with small game and to the desert, where hunting is forbidden s...
The population of Tunisia is essentially Arab Berber. However, throughout the centuries Tunisia has received various waves of immigration that have included Phoenicians, sub-Saharan Africans, Jews, Romans, Vandals, and Arabs; Muslim refugees from Sicily settled in Al-Sāḥil after their homeland was captured by the Normans in 1091. The most notable i...
Nov 27, 2017 · The city of Tunis is the capital and seat of Tunisia's national government. The city is separated from the Gulf of Tunis by the Lake of Tunis, a natural lagoon, and is connected to the Tunisian port of La Goulette by a canal.
- Oishimaya Sen Nag
Jun 6, 2019 · The Tunis Medina (Old Town) is a fascinating place to learn more about this north African city, which is the capital of Tunisia. The 9th century Medina was originally surrounded by walls. Today the walls are gone, but the area is filled with narrow streets, souks, mosques, and historic structures.
- Linda Garrison
Dec 21, 2021 · Capital. name: Tunis geographic coordinates: 36 48 N, 10 11 E time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
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Tunis is the capital of Tunisia. It functions as Tunisia's center for politics, economy, and culture.
