Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is located on the large Mediterranean Sea gulf, behind Lake of Tunis and the port of La Goulette, on the coastal plain and surrounding hills. At its heart lies the Medina, a World Heritage Site. To the east of the Medina, via the Sea Gate, otherwise known as Bab el Bhar and the Porte de France, starts the modern part of the city known as the "Ville Nouvelle", crossed by Habib Bourguiba Avenue, where colonial-era buildings contrast sharply with smaller, older buildings. The suburbs of Carthage, La Marsa and Sidi Bou Said lie further east on the coast. The medina which is built on a gentle hillside on the way to Lake Tunis, is the historic center of the city and is home to many monuments, amongst them palaces such as Dar Ben Abdallah and Dar Hussein, the mausoleum of Tourbet el Bey and several mosques, such as Al-Zaytuna Mosque. Part of the surrounding fortifications have now mostly disappeared, and the city is flanked by the two suburbs of Bab Souika to the north and Bab El Jazira to the south. Covering an area of 270 hectares and with over 100 000 inhabitants, the Medina represents one tenth of the population of Tunis. The design of the Medina in Tunis is unique in that it does not include grid lines or formal geometric compositions. In the 1930s studies were carried out with the arrival of the first anthropologists, who discovered that the Medina's space was not random, houses were built according to a socio-cultural code based on complex types of human relationships. The city hosts several festivals every year, the largest of which is the International Festival of Carthage. Most of the festival is held in a 7500-seat Amphitheatre.