Tunisia

Tunisia is a country in North Africa.

The Mediterranean Sea is on two sides. The north has green hills and lots of rain. The south has hot, sandy desert. The capital city is Tunis.

Tunisia is a country in North Africa. Algeria lies to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east.

In the north, mountains and valleys get plenty of rain in winter. Farther south the land becomes dry, grassy steppe, and the far south is part of the Sahara. About 12 million people lived in Tunisia in 2024. The capital, Tunis, is near the ruins of the ancient city of Carthage.

Tunisia lies between about 37° and 30° N, bounded by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast and the Mediterranean to the east and north. Britannica notes that its accessible Mediterranean coastline and strategic location have drawn conquerors and visitors through the ages, and that ready access to the Sahara has long linked its people with the African interior.

The National Institute of Statistics (INS) counted 11,972,169 people in the 2024 census, growing by about 0.87 percent a year; 22.8 percent were under 15, and the share of older people had risen to 16.9 percent from 11.7 percent in 2014. Britannica divides the country into four regions: the fertile, well-watered north; the semiarid center; Al-Sāḥil, the olive-growing east-central coast; and the desert south.

Tunis is the capital city. It is near the sea.

Tunisia has very old places. El Jem has a huge round stone arena. Dougga is an old town on a hill. Kairouan has a big old mosque.

Tunis, the capital, mixes old markets called souks and mosques with modern office buildings, and about one in five Tunisians lives in and around it. Sfax, on the east coast, is the center of Tunisia's fishing industry.

Tunisia has many ancient ruins. The amphitheater of El Jem, built in the 200s, could hold up to 35,000 spectators. Dougga, on a hilltop in the northwest, is considered the best-preserved Roman-African town in North Africa. Kairouan, founded in 670, has a Great Mosque with columns of marble.

Tunis blends old souks and mosques with modern office buildings; about one-fifth of the population lives in its urban agglomeration (Britannica). Sfax is the center of an expanding fishing industry whose main catches are sardines, mackerel and cuttlefish. Other cities include Sousse and Gabès on the coast and Kairouan and El-Kef inland.

UNESCO's sites include Carthage and the medina of Tunis (1979). The amphitheater of El Jem (1979), the largest colosseum in North Africa, held up to 35,000 spectators in the 3rd century. Dougga (1997), on a hill at 571 m, was probably the first capital of the Numidian kingdom and is, for UNESCO, the best-preserved Africo-Roman town in North Africa. Kairouan (1988), founded in 670, was capital of Ifriqiya for five centuries; its Great Mosque, with marble and porphyry columns, served as a model for later mosques. Djerba was added in 2023 for a settlement pattern of neighborhoods that developed from around the 9th century.

The north of Tunisia has green hills and forests.

It rains a lot there in winter. The middle is dry grassland. The south is hot, sandy desert. There are salty lake beds too.

A mountain range called the Tunisian Dorsale runs across the country from southwest to northeast. Its highest peak, Mount Chambi, near the Algerian border, is 1,544 meters high. North of it, the Majardah River, the only river in Tunisia that flows all year, crosses a fertile valley that was once the granary of ancient Rome.

Rain falls mostly from autumn to spring. The Kroumirie Mountains in the northwest get about 1,520 millimeters a year, but Tozeur in the southwest gets less than 100. South of the steppes lie salty lake beds called chotts, and then the sand of the Sahara.

Tunisia's relief is moderate. The Tunisian Dorsale, or High Tell, an extension of the Saharan Atlas of Algeria, trends southwest to northeast and tapers toward Cape Bon; Mount Chambi, near the center of the Algerian border, reaches 1,544 m and Mount Zaghouan 1,295 m. Between the Dorsale and the Northern Tell lies the Majardah (Medjerda) valley, ancient lake basins covered with alluvium. Once the granary of ancient Rome, it is still Tunisia's richest grain region, drained by the Majardah, the only perennially flowing stream.

The climate runs from Mediterranean in the north (mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers) to semiarid steppe and desert. The Kroumirie Mountains receive about 1,520 mm a year, making them the wettest region in North Africa, against under 100 mm at Tozeur; three-fourths of the rain falls from mid-autumn to mid-spring. Sousse on the coast averages 7 °C in January and 32 °C in August, inland Kairouan 4 °C and 37 °C. Farther south are the chotts, salty lake depressions, and the Great Eastern Erg.

About 12 million people lived in Tunisia in 2024.

Most people speak Arabic. French is used in schools and newspapers too. Many meals have couscous. Harissa is a red, spicy paste made from chili peppers.

Most Tunisians speak Tunisian Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic is taught in schools. French, which came during French rule, is still used in newspapers, schools and government. A small number of people, mostly in the south, speak Berber languages. Almost everyone is Muslim, and small Christian and Jewish communities practice their faiths too.

For many families, meals are a time to gather. Couscous, made from semolina and served with a rich stew, is part of almost every meal. Harissa, a hot paste of chili peppers, salt, garlic and coriander, is usually made by women in family or neighborhood gatherings.

Tunisia's population is essentially Arab Berber, shaped by waves of arrivals: Phoenicians, sub-Saharan Africans, Jews, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Muslims from Sicily after 1091, some 200,000 Andalusian Muslims after the Reconquista, and Ottomans from the 16th to the 19th century. Arabic is official and most people speak Tunisian Arabic; French remains important in the press, education and government, and only a tiny fraction, mostly in the south, speak a Berber language. Islam in its Mālikī Sunni form is the state religion; Christian and Jewish communities, more than 300,000 people in 1956, now number tens of thousands.

About two-thirds of the people live in cities. Couscous is a staple of virtually every meal; UNESCO inscribed couscous traditions, shared by Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, in 2020, and Tunisia's harissa, a chili paste ground with salt, garlic and coriander, in 2022. Olive oil, chickpeas, lamb and peppers are other basics, with seafood near the coast.