Tunis tunisia where is it

The contrast with the peaceful neighbouring alleys is striking. White walls and blue ironwork, vaulted passageways, domes with green tiles, yellow doors framed with delicate patterns in carved stone… Knowing how to meander is important to fully appreciate the diversity of the medina.

On the modern side, the neighbourhoods surrounding Bourguiba avenue have their own special charm. At the foot of the buildings in the Art Nouveau or Art Deco style, a lively crowd squeezes into popular cafes, fashion boutiques, tramways and the rows of palm and fig trees.

Visit the Central Market overflowing with groceries. In the medina of Tunis, you can visit remarkable monuments see p. In the city centre, visit the cathedral in the Byzantine-Moorish style, always full of activity. Hear a classical music concert in the Municipal Theatre, built in , or take a stroll in Belvedere park.

Play a round of golf two courses very close to Tunis or take advantage of the proximity of Carthage Land theme park. For a trendy evening, pay a visit to the fashionable modern quarter, Berges du Lac, or to La Goulette, once a favourite place to stay for the Jews of Tunis. The sea is not far from the city centre: you will find find beaches and numerous activities at Borj Cedria and Ezzahra, 20 km away. History buffs, visit the archaeological site of Oudhna 25 km away.

On October 25, , national elections to elect the president and parliament were held in Tunisia in what was described by a Human Rights Watch report as "an atmosphere of repression". Ben Ali faced three candidates, two of whom said they actually supported the incumbent.

His opponent, Mohamed Bouchiha, received 5. The candidate who was most critical of the regime, Ahmed Ibrahim, of the Ettajdid party, received only 1. The president's party, the RCD, also got the majority of votes for the parliamentary election, The Movement of Socialist Democrats party received 4.

The election received criticism in foreign media. Human Rights Watch has reported that parties and candidates were denied exposure equal to the sitting president, and that the Ettajdid party's weekly publication, Ettarik al-Jadid , was seized by authorities.

Two journalists, one of them a leading critic of the president, were in jail later in the year. Journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who had published two articles in French newspapers that were critical of the regime, has been incarcerated since October 29, until his release on April 27, The Court of Appeal upheld a sentence of nine years on 3 January in a trial that "confirmed the complete absence of independence of the Tunisian legal system" the defendant's French lawyer William Bourdon said.

The Tunisian revolution was an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations that took place in Tunisia. The events began when Mohamed Bouazizi, a year old Tunisian street vendor, set himself afire on 17 December , in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the humiliation that was inflicted on him by a municipal official.

This act became the catalyst for mass demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. Anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death on 4 January , ultimately leading longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January , after 23 years in power.

International Tunisian organizations, such as the Tunisian Community Center in the US, supported the protesters' aims toward democracy as well, in addition to TCC's efforts to freeze Ben Ali's assets abroad. The demonstrations were precipitated by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, a lack of freedom of speech and other political freedoms and poor living conditions. The protests constituted the most dramatic wave of social and political unrest in Tunisia in three decades and resulted in scores of deaths and injuries, most of which were the result of action by police and security forces against demonstrators.

Labour unions were said to be an integral part of the protests. The protests inspired similar actions throughout the Arab world; sparking the Egyptian revolution in which Egypt's longtime president Hosni Mubarak was ousted, Libya — where a civil war broke out, the Yemeni Revolution, in which longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to resign and further protests in Algeria, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, and Syria, — as well as elsewhere in the wider North Africa and Middle East.

In response to the demonstrations, Ben Ali declared a state of emergency in the country, dissolved the government on January 14, , and promised new legislative elections within six months. But on that same day Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi went on state television to say he was assuming power in Tunisia. Unconfirmed news reports, citing unidentified government sources in Tunisia, said that the President had left the country. Ghannouchi based his speech on Article 56 of the Tunisian constitution.

However, the head of Tunisia's Constitutional Court, Fethi Abdennadher, confirmed that Ghannouchi violated the constitution, as Article 56 was not applicable to the circumstances and required a President. Article 57 of the constitution stated that the President of the Parliament should take the executive power and organize an election in 45 to 60 days.

Consequently, Fouad Mebazaa became acting President following the Constitutional Court's interpretation of the situation and the Constitution. Protests continued in Tunisia to call for banning of the ruling party and the eviction of all its members from the transitional government formed by Mohammed Ghannouchi. Eventually the new government gave in to the demands and a new prime minister Beji Caid-Essebsi was appointed by the acting president on Thursday March 3, Two of the first actions made after the appointment of the new government were the decision of the Tunis court to ban the ex-ruling party RCD and to confiscate all its resources, and a decree by the minister of the interior banning the "political police" including what has been known as the state security special forces which were used to intimidate and persecute political activists.

On 3 March , the president announced that elections to a Constituent Assembly would be held on 23 October The constituent assembly elections took place as scheduled with international and internal observers declaring it free and fair.

The Ennahda Movement, formerly banned under the Ben Ali regime, won a plurality of 90 seats out of a total of On 12 December , former dissident and veteran human rights activist Moncef Marzouki was elected as president of Tunisia by a ruling coalition dominated by the moderate Islamist Nahda party, and sworn in on 13 December Marzouki had previously been imprisoned and exiled for years for opposing former President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

At the time of his election, Marzouki was head of the secular center-left Congress for the Republic party. The Islamist Nahda party also "won the largest share of seats in an assembly charged with appointing a transitional government and drafting a new constitution. The new Constitution of Tunisia guarantees rights for women, and states that the President's religion "shall be Islam. Tunisia has a diverse economy, ranging from agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and petroleum products, to tourism.

The agricultural sector stands for The industrial sector is mainly made up of clothing and footwear manufacturing, production of car parts, and electric machinery. Tunisia was in ranked the most competitive economy in Africa and the 40th in the world by the World Economic Forum.

Tunisia has managed to attract many international companies such as Airbus and Hewlett-Packard. The European Union remains Tunisia's first trading partner, currently accounting for Tunisia was the first Mediterranean country to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, in July , although even before the date of entry came into force, Tunisia started dismantling tariffs on bilateral EU trade.

Tunisia finalised the tariffs dismantling for industrial products in and therefore was the first Mediterranean country to enter in a free trade area with EU. Tunisia also attracted large Persian Gulf investments especially from United Arab Emirates the largest include:. In , a total of 13, GWh was produced in the country. The main field is El Bourma. Tunisia has plans for two nuclear power stations, to be operational by Both facilities are projected to produce — MW.

France is set to become an important partner in Tunisia's nuclear power plans, having signed an agreement, along with other partners, to deliver training and technology. The Desertec project is a large-scale energy project aimed at installing solar power panels in northern Africa, with a power line connection between it and southern Europe. Tunisia will be a part of this project, but exactly how it may benefit from this remains to be seen.

The governorates are divided into "delegations" or "districts" mutamadiyat , and further subdivided into municipalities shaykhats and sectors imadats. Tunisia's military spending is 1. The army is responsible for national defence and also internal security.

It is bordered by Algeria on the west and Libya on the south east. An abrupt southward turn of the Mediterranean coast in northern Tunisia gives the country two distinctive Mediterranean coasts, west-east in the north, and north-south in the east.

Though it is relatively small in size, Tunisia has great environmental diversity due to its north-south extent. Its east-west extent is limited. Differences in Tunisia, like the rest of the Maghreb, are largely north-south environmental differences defined by sharply decreasing rainfall southward from any point. The Dorsal, the eastern extension of the Atlas Mountains, runs across Tunisia in a northeasterly direction from the Algerian border in the west to the Cape Bon peninsula in the east.

North of the Dorsal is the Tell, a region characterized by low, rolling hills and plains, again an extension of mountains to the west in Algeria. In the Khroumerie, the northwestern corner of the Tunisian Tell, elevations reach 1, metres 3, ft and snow occurs in winter. The Sahel, a broadening coastal plain along Tunisia's eastern Mediterranean coast, is among the world's premier areas of olive cultivation.

Inland from the Sahel, between the Dorsal and a range of hills south of Gafsa, are the Steppes. Much of the southern region is semi-arid and desert. Tunisia has a coastline 1, kilometres mi long. In maritime terms, the country claims a contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles Tunisia's climate is temperate in the north, with mild rainy winters and hot, dry summers.

The south of the country is desert. The terrain in the north is mountainous, which, moving south, gives way to a hot, dry central plain. Registration criteria Tunis exercised a major influence on the development of architecture and decorative arts in the eastern part of the Maghreb.

V Historical reference During the Arab conquest of Ifriqiyya in the 7th century, Tunis was re-born on the ancient site of Tunes. The destruction of Carthage was a deciding factor in its renewal. For the brief period during the reign of the Aghlabids, between and , Tunis was the capital of Ifriqiyya. The Fatimid Dynasty and the Zirid Dynasty which followed it ruled over Tunis from until ; Mahdia and Kairouan were their respective capitals.

Between and , Tunis was the capital city of the Hafsids, a Maghrebian dynasty which emerged from the Almohaves. This period was the peak of the history of Tunis. View large format slider. Tunis, Tunisia. More information is available on Wikipedia Tunis. Tunis, Tunisia Tunis, is the capital and the largest city of Tunisia. More information is available on Wikipedia Tunis Sentinel -2 images acquired over the area This image acquired from the Sentinel 2 satellite and processed in different bands.