North Africa’s smallest country packs in enough diversity for a continent. Vestiges of former rulers dot the landscape: the remains of the mighty city-state of Carthage;
Roman ruins that demonstrate this was Rome’s richest imperial province; medieval
medinas (walled cities) built at the beginning of the Arabic era; and elegant 19th century French
colonial boulevards. The country’s cuisine is also a delicious hotchpotch - French, North African, Middle Eastern and Turkish.
Beautiful
beaches punctuate its 1,400km (875 miles) of Mediterranean coast.
In the south lie the undulating Sahara, salt lakes and otherworldly
Berber architecture, used as locations for
Star Wars and the
English Patient. In the north, mountains are cloaked in cork forest, while the Cap Bon peninsular and central Tunisia are rich in fruit trees, olive groves and vineyards.
This is Arabia at its most
relaxed. Women’s rights are better served than anywhere else in the Arabic world. Alcohol is freely available. After independence in 1956, Tunisia was ruled for three decades by Habib Bourguiba, a great paternalist and moderniser. Since his fall, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has continued along a similar path, focusing on a separation of state and religion, exerting strict media control and discouraging Islamic fundamentalism and any type of opposition.
GeographyThe Republic of Tunisia lies on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, 130km (80 miles) southwest of Sicily and 160km (100 miles) due south of Sardinia. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. The landscape varies from the cliffs of the north coast to the woodlands of the interior, from deep valleys of rich arable land to desert, and from towering mountains to salt pans lower than sea level. South of Gafsa and Gabès is the Sahara desert. The 1,100km (700 miles) of coastline is dotted with small islands, notably Jerba in the south and Kerkennah in the east, and from the northwest to the southeast the coastline is backed successively by pine-clad hills, lush pasture, orchards, vineyards and olive groves.
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