Musée Alaoui (p. [340]), daily except Mon. and great Catholic festivals 9.30–11.30 and 1–4 (16th Feb. to 15th Oct. 2–5), 1 fr. (Sun. free); the same ticket admits to the Bardo Palace also, if visited on the same day.
Two Days. 1st. Forenoon, Ave. Jules-Ferry and Ave. de France (p. [333]); walk through the Souks of the Medina (p. [335]) and the adjoining Mohammedan Quarters (p. [334]); visit to Place el-Halfaouine (p. [337]). Afternoon, Bardo Museum (p. [340]) or Belvedere Park (p. [338]), or, by carriage, both.—2nd. Excursion to Carthage, see R. 53.
Tunis, Ital. Túnisi, capital of the Régence de Tunis, and seat of the French Resident-General (p. [323]) and of the Mohammedan university, is the largest city in N. Africa after Cairo and Alexandria, and vies with Sfax as a most important harbour. Population about 200,000, of whom about 115,000 are Mohammedans, 22,500 Jews, 41,000 Italians, 14,000 French, 5400 Maltese, and 250 Greeks.
The town lies in 36°47′ N. lat. and 10°10′ W. long., on the E. margin of the narrow tongue of land (rising to 190 ft.) between the Lac de Tunis (or Lake Bahira, p. [129]) and the small salt-lake Sebkha es-Sedjoumi, an old lagoon. The central part of the sea of houses composing the old town is the Medina, the oldest Moorish quarter, built largely out of the ruins of Thunes, Carthage, and Utica, and now the chief focus of trade and industry. Adjacent, to the N. and S., are two poor quarters, also chiefly Mohammedan, the Rebat Bab-Souika and Rebat Bab-Djazira, formerly N. and E. suburbs. The monotonous European new town in the low ground to the E. of the Medina, exposed in summer to the exhalations of Lake Bahira, is gradually extending from the Porte de France (formerly Bab el-Bahar, sea-gate) towards the harbour. On the brow of the hill to the W. of the old town are the old Kasba and most of the public buildings, almost all built under the French protectorate. Some of these lie outside the Turkish town-wall, once 6000 yds. long, erected in the 17th century.
Tunis, the ancient Thunes, a Berber name given to an earlier Phœnician colony, appears in history in 508 B.C. as an ally of Carthage. In 395 it was destroyed by rebellious Berber tribes. It was from Thunes that Agathocles (p. [163]) and Regulus (p. [345]) advanced against Carthage, and here, after the first Punic war, the discontented mercenaries from Sicca Veneria (p. [360]) established themselves. Tunis was probably destroyed by the Romans at the same time as Carthage (146 B.C.) and rebuilt later. After the downfall of Carthage Utica (p. [353]) entered into the heritage of her proud neighbour, but for a short time only; for from 29 B.C. onwards Carthage resumed her ancient supremacy and continued to flourish down to her second destruction in 698 A.D. This time Tunis was her natural successor. But the nomadic Arabs, being ignorant of navigation, and the Aglabides (p. [323]) preferred Kairwan (p. [372]), which had recently been founded in the heart of the Tunisian steppe; and the succeeding Fatimite and Zirite dynasties favoured the Sahel, with Mehdia (p. [369]) as their new capital, to the detriment of N. Tunisia. At length, under the Hafsides (1206–1573; p. [323]), Tunis became the capital, and rapidly grew to be the greatest and fairest city in the land, as well as a zealous promoter of the glorious Moorish art and science of the 13th and 14th centuries. The most distinguished of the Hafside sovereigns was Abû Abdallah Mohammed el-Mostanser Billah, who in 1270 defended his capital successfully against Louis IX., the Saint (p. [346]). After the decline of that dynasty at the close of the 15th cent. and the capture of Tunis by Kheireddin (p. [221]) in 1534, the city was attacked by the Spaniards in three different campaigns (p. [323]), and was conquered four times by the Turks and the Algerians (in 1569, 1573, 1689, and 1757); yet in the 17th and 18th centuries, thanks to its Oriental trade and the booty of its pirates, it again enjoyed great prosperity.
The only mediæval buildings in the old town which have survived all these vicissitudes are three mosques, now much modernized. The distinctive character of the present town is of Mauro-Turkish origin. Those who cross the threshold of the Orient here for the first time will be specially struck with the narrow and crooked lanes of the Mohammedan quarters, only 12–16 ft. wide, with the motley crowd in the Souks (p. [335]), and with the picturesque concourse of all the tribes of N. Africa and the Sahara. The poor Jewish quarter (p. [337]) is less interesting. The strange costume of the women, with their kufias or sugar-loaf hats, loose jackets, and tight-fitting trousers, is now rarely seen except on members of the older generation, while the pretty, old-fashioned costume of the girls is a thing of the past.
John Howard Payne (b. 1792), author of ‘Home, Sweet Home’, was United States consul at Tunis from 1842 until his death in 1852.
a. The New Town.
From the Harbour (Port; see inset map, Pl. E, 1), which together with the Bahira Canal (p. [129]) was constructed in 1888–96, the short Avenue du Port (tramway No. 1, p. [330]) leads through the Piccola Sicilia, a group of workmen’s huts, into the town, ending at the bronze statue of Jules Ferry (1832–93), the French statesman who brought about the occupation of Tunisia.
The Avenue Jules-Ferry (Pl. E, 4), or Avenue de la Marine, the finest street in the new town, 66 yds. wide and 710 yds. long, is planted with double avenues of fig-trees. On the left, just beyond the divergence, to the right and left, of the unfinished Avenue de Paris (p. [338]) and Avenue de Carthage (Pl. E, 5–7), which together are 2¼ M. long, rises the Casino Municipal (Pl. E, 4; p. [331]).