Sousse

Sousse سوسة
City
Clockwise from top: Centre Ville of Sousse, Aerial view of Sousse, Great Mosque of Sousse, Port El Kantaoui, El Finga, Medina of Sousse
Flag Seal
Nickname(s):  "The pearl of the Sahel"
Sousse Location in Tunisia
Coordinates: 35°50′N 10°38′E / 35.833°N 10.633°E / 35.833; 10.633
Country	Tunisia
Governorate	Sousse Governorate
Population  (2013)
• City	271.428
• Metro	674.971
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (CET)
Website	www.commune-sousse.gov.tn/fr
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Medina of Sousse
Criteria	Cultural: (iii)(iv)(v)
Reference	498bis
Inscription	1988 (12th Session)
Extensions	2010
Area	31.68 ha (0.1223 sq mi)
Buffer zone	60.99 ha (0.2355 sq mi)

Sousse or Soussa (Arabic: سوسة‎, Sūsa; Berber: Susa) is a city in Tunisia, capital of the Sousse Governorate. Located 140 km (87 mi) south of the capital Tunis, the city has 271,428 inhabitants (2014). Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. Its economy is based on transport equipment, processed food, olive oil, textiles, and tourism. It is home to the Université de Sousse.

Toponomy[]

Sousse and Soussa are both French spellings of the Arabic name Sūsa, which may derive from Berber (cf., e.g., Morocco's Sous River and Region). The present city has also grown to include the ruins of Hadrumetum, which had many names in several languages during antiquity.^[1][2][3]

Geography[]

Sousse district

Sousse is located in the center of Tunisia, on the Tunisian Sahel coast and located in the Mediterranean Sea bordering the east of the country. The city covers 45 km2 and is located 25 meters above sea level.^[4]

Administration[]

The Municipality of Sousse is the capital of a governorate which extends over 2669.^[5] It is divided into four municipal districts:^[6] Sousse Nord, Sousse Sud, Sousse Médina and Sousse Riadh. The first two are created on 11 February1976 and the last two on 19 February 1982. Its main constituencies and Delegation are four in number: Sousse Sidi Abdelhamid, Sousse Médina, Sousse Jawhara and Sousse Riadh.

Its geographic code is 31.

History[]

A mosaic depicting Medusa in the Museum of Sousse.

Hadrumetum[]

In the 11th century BC,^{[7][dubious – discuss]} Tyrians established Hadrumetum^[8] as a trading post and waypoint along their trade routes to Italy and the Strait of Gibraltar. Its establishment (at a river mouth about 9.7 km or 6 mi north of old Sousse)^[9][10] preceded Carthage's^[11] but, like other western Phoenician colonies, it became part of the Carthaginian Empire^[8] following Nebuchadnezzar II's long siege of Tyre in the 580s and 570s BC.

The city featured in the Third Sicilian War, the Second and Third Punic Wars (in the latter of which it secured additional territory and special privileges by aiding Rome against what was left of the Carthaginians), and Caesar's Civil War, when it was the scene of Caesar's famously deft recovery: upon tripping while coming ashore, he dealt with the poor omen this threatened to become by grabbing handfuls of dirt and proclaiming "I have you now, Africa!" (Latin: Teneo te Africa!)^[12] The second city in Roman Africa after Carthage, it became the capital of the province of Byzacena during the Diocletianic Reforms. Its native sons included the jurist Salvius Julianus, the emperor Clodius Albinus, and numerous Christian saints. The Roman and Byzantine catacombs beneath the city are extensive.

The Vandals sacked Hadrumetum in 434 but it remained a place of importance within their kingdom; a bishop and proconsul were martyred there during the Vandals' periodic forced conversions of their subjects to Arianism. The Byzantine Empire reconquered the town in 534 during the Vandal War and engaged in a public works program that included new fortifications and churches. The town was sacked during the Umayyad Caliphate's 7th-century conquest of North Africa. According to a 1987 ICOMOS report, Uqba ibn Nafi's siege and capture of the city resulted in its almost complete destruction, such that no monument of Hadrumetum "subsists in situ".^[2]

Medieval Susa[]

Muslim Arab armies rapidly spread Arab culture across what had been a thoroughly Romanized and Christianized landscape. Under the Aghlabids, Susa was established near the ruins of Hadrumetum and served as their main port. Their 827 invasion of Sicily was mainly launched from the town's harbor. After the Byzantine city of Melite (modern Mdina on Malta) was captured by the Aghlabids in 870, marble from its churches was used to build the Ribat.^[13] A soaring structure that combined the purposes of a minaret and a watch tower, it remains in outstanding condition and draws visitors from around the world. Its mosque is sometimes accounted the oldest surviving in the region and the town's main mosque, also built during the 9th century, has a similarly fortress-like appearance.

Susa was briefly occupied by Norman Sicily in the 12th century; it fell to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th; and it was bombarded by a French and Venetian fleet in the 18th.

Medieval Susa was known for its textile industries, producing silk and flax fabrics called Sūsī. Especially renowned were its robes called shuqqas, some of which were mass-produced and sold ready-to-wear throughout the Mediterranean.^[14]

Colonial Sousse[]

Tunisia became a French protectorate in 1881. The French improved the town's harbor during the next two decades. Prior to the First World War, Sousse had about 25,000 inhabitants, including around 10,000 French and roughly 5,000 other Europeans, mostly Italians and Maltese. The port was the garrison of the 4th Tunisian Rifle Regiment.^{[citation needed]}

Modern Sousse[]

Sousse has retained the solidly Arabian look and feel it had assumed in the centuries after its initial conquest. Today it is considered one of the best examples of seaward-facing fortifications built by the Arabs. These days, Sousse, with a population of about 200,000, retains a medieval heart of narrow, twisted streets, a kasbah and medina, its ribat fortress and long wall on the Mediterranean. Surrounding it is a modern city of long, straight roads and more widely spaced buildings.

Sousse was the site of the chess interzonal in 1967, made famous when American Grandmaster Bobby Fischer withdrew from the tournament even though he was in first place at the time.^[15]

On 26 June 2015, a lone gunman later identified as Seifeddine Rezgui Yacoubi opened fire on tourists sunbathing on a beach near the Riu Imperial Marhaba and Soviva hotels, killing 38 and wounding 39, before being shot dead by the police.

Cityscape[]

Panorama of Sousse

Demography[]

In 2019, the total Sousse population is 737,027 thousand persons.^[16] The Males represent 50.1% of the population structure (with a population of 509,456) against 49.9% by Females (with a population of 507,426) in 2014.^[17]

Public services[]

University of Sousse

The city contains the University of Sousse, formerly known as the University of the Center, with in particular its Ibn El Jazzar, Faculty of Medicine and the Sousse National School of Engineers, as well as the Higher Institute of Music of Sousse founded in 1999.

Note also the presence of a number of high schools, such as the pilot high school of Sousse, the boys 'high school, the Tahar-Sfar high school (formerly the young girls' high school), the 20 – March 1934 high school (technical high school), the Abdelaziz-El-Bahi high school or the Jawhara high school, and colleges, such as the Pilot College of Sousse, the Mohamed El Aroui College or the Constantine College

Sousse is served by a hospital, the Hospital of Sahloul, the largest in the region.

Economy[]

Sousse indistrual zone

Sousse is the third largest city in Tunisia after Tunis and Sfax. Although Sousse is associated with olive oil manufacture and has other industries, tourism predominates today. An olive grove covering more than 2,500 km² (965 sq mi) constitutes one of its main riches since antiquity. The busy port near downtown adds a touch of liveliness to its activity. Sousse also had many oil wells in the area during its colonial period.

Tourism[]

Sousse is an important tourist resort. It has a hot semi-arid climate, with the seaside location moderating the climate, making it an all-season resort with hot, dry summers and warm, mild, wet winters. The fine sandy beaches are backed by orchards and olive groves.

Only 20 km (12 mi) from Monastir and Monastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport, hotel complexes with a capacity of 40,000 beds extend 20 km (12 mi) from the old city (medina) north along the seafront to Port El Kantaoui. Some 1,200,000 visitors come every year to enjoy its hotels and restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, beaches, and sports facilities.

Sousse is considered to be a popular tourist destination, especially due to its nightlife. Well-known nightclubs include Bora Bora, Living, Rediguana, Platinum, and The Saloon. The top producers and DJs in dance come to play at the various clubs. The season traditionally begins at the start of June and finishes on the first weekend of October with the closing parties.

• Beaches and some hotels in Sousse
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Paranoma of Sousse beach

Transport[]

Sahel Metro train in Sousse

Sousse-Bab Jedid station.

Sousse is well-connected with the main Tunisian Railways network, having non-electrified lines to Tunis (since 1899), Sfax (since 1911), and Kasserine (since 2004) with diesel multiple unit and locomotive-driven trains. The main terminus is in the city center, while Gare Kalaa Seghira serves a bypass route.

Since 2010 the electrified Sahel Metro line goes south to Monastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport, Monastir, and Mahdia. This line has the station as its northern terminus in Sousse's city center, and 4 additional stations in the city.

Intercity buses and red-strip microbuses (so-called louages) connect Sousse with many cities in Tunisia. Urban transit in Sousse is served by routes of articulated and conventional buses, blue-strip louages, and cheap taxis. The 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) Sousse–Kairouan Decauville railway operated from 1882 to 1996, before it was regauged to 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge.

Sights[]

Medina[]

Medina of Sousse

A medina, surrounded by its city walls and fortifications, is of historical interest. The medina includes open and covered bazaars (souks). Buildings of historical interest include the ribat castle, the central mosque, and a historical museum in the Casbah with mosaics from the area's many Roman villas. The Carthaginian catacombs can be visited.

UNESCO declared the medina of Sousse a World Heritage Site in 1988, citing among various things its preservation from modern development.

Port Kantaoui[]

The Kantaoui Port, is a touristic station in the form of a Port. It was built in 1979 specifically as a tourist center,.^[18]

The architecture, although modern and dazzlingly white, has been modeled on the more traditional buildings in Tunisia, complete with narrow streets and arches. The hotels that line the beachfront extend from Sousse itself along miles of sparkling clean sea to the harbor of Port El Kantaoui and to the north of the harbor.

Religious buildings[]

Great Mosque[]

Grande Mosquée of Sousse

Located at the entrance to the medina, it was erected by the Aghlabid sovereign Aboul Abbas I (841–856) in 850–851, almost thirty years after the construction of the Ribat of Sousse. This mosque is the most emblematic of a city that became a few years after the reign of Ziadet-Allah I (817–838), the second city of Ifriqiya and the Sahel. Subsequently, the building is enlarged during the reign of Ibrahim II (875–902)

Other religious sights[]

• Bou Ftetah Mosque
• Médersa El Zaqqaq
• Église Saint-Félix

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  Mosquée Bou Fetatah

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  Minaret Al Zaqqaq

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  Saint Félix Cathedral

Sport[]

Stade Olympique de Sousse

The city of Sousse is represented by Étoile Sportive du Sahel, a large multisport club. Football is the most popular sport of the city, and ES Sahel has won the Tunisian football championship ten times, and the Tunisian Cup ten times. The team's home ground is Stade Olympique de Sousse. Handball, basketball, and volleyball are also popular.

Climate[]

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies Sousse's climate as hot semi-arid (BSh)^[19] bordering with hot-summer Mediterranean (Csa) and cool semi-arid (BSk).

The highest recorded temperature was 48 °C (118 °F) on 28 August 2007, while the lowest recorded temperature was 4.5 °C (40.1 °F) on 27 December 1993.^[20]

Notable people[]

• Primasius of Hadrumetum, Roman bishop and exegete, noted for his Commentary on the Apocalypse
• Zine El Abidine Ben Ali former president.
• Aymen Abdennour, footballer
• Makrem Ben Romdhane, basketball player
• Dov Alfon, author and journalist
• Ons Jabeur, tennis player

In films[]

Sousse's old city has aspects that made it ideal as a film location. Most famous is Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), where Sousse represents Cairo, however the architectural style of Sousse, white-washed houses with blue details, bear no resemblance to the actual architecture of Cairo.^{[citation needed]}

Twin towns – sister cities[]

Sousse is twinned with:

Gallery[]

References[]

Further reading[]

• A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology, and Geography, New York: Harper & Bros, 1860.
• Badelon, Ernest Charles François (1911), "Hadrumetum", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. XII, Encyclopaedia Britannica Co., pp. 802–803.
• Norie, J.W. (1831), New Piloting Directions for the Mediterranean Sea..., London: J.W. Norie & Co.

External links[]

Official:

• Sousse (Municipalité). "Portail officiel de la municipalité de Sousse" (in French). Archived from the original on 10 January 2012.
• Sousse (Municipalité). "Portail officiel de la municipalité de Sousse > Découvrir Sousse > Histoire et Patrimoine" (in French). Archived from the original on 27 August 2011. > 'Sousse Patrimoine Mondial de l'humanité' and 'Sousse dans l'histoire'
• Office de la marine marchande et des ports (Tunisia). "Port de Sousse" (in French). Archived from the original on 4 June 2008.
• Cultural portal. "Portail de la ville de Sousse" (in French).

General references and travel guides:

• Sousse travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Interactive Virtual Tour of Sousse
• "Susa (Tunisia)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). 1911.

Photographs:

• Heini. "Pictures of Sousse (fifty-one pictures)".
• Photo Gallery of Sousse by a Tourist 2010 Winter

Coordinates: 35°50′N 10°38′E / 35.833°N 10.633°E / 35.833; 10.633

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