TUNIS, capital of Tunisia, situated in lat. 36° 48' N., and long. le 12' E. The town stands on a mountainous isthmus which separates the Sebkha Sedjumi from the Bahira, or Lake of Tunis, the west bank of which it occupies ; La Bahira corn municates with the sea Io km. E.N.E. of the town by a narrow, open channel, on the margin of the shore. Tunis has the same natural advantages as those which made the fortune of Carthage, being situated on the threshold of the western bay of the Mediterranean, at the natural outlet of the Tunisian Tell, and in easy communication with the south and centre of the Regency. But its topographical situation differs profoundly from that of the ancient town ; built at the end of a shallow lagoon, it has been obliged, until recently, to make use of an intermediate town, La Goulette, for its sea trade. While Carthage had an almost insular position, Tunis was sheltered from the attacks of Christian fleets and has an almost continental site.
Tunis consists of two towns side by side; the old native town lies between the hills of Bir-Kassa and those of Ras-Tabia, on a slope down to the Bahira ; the European town has developed in chequer-pattern on the flat, low-lying ground between old Tunis and the lake.
European Tunis is built on a regular, somewhat monotonous plan ; the blocks of houses are bordered by rectilinear avenues, some of which are planted with trees. One large avenue, 1,500 metres long, has been laid out from east to west, and bears suc cessively the names of Avenue Jules-Ferry, Avenue de la Marine and Avenue de France. On this artery stand the Residency, sur rounded by gardens, the cathedral, the casino-theatre, the banks, and the principal hotels and cafes. It is cut at right angles, near the middle of its length, by another avenue called, in its southern part, Avenue de Carthage, and in its northern part Avenue de Paris, which stretches for more than 3 km. from north to south. From these two main avenues numerous streets branch off, the chief being the rue Es-Sadikia, which ends at the railway station, the rue de Rome and the rue d'Italie, with the post office, the mar ket and the Protestant church. The Avenue de France is the most animated street of Tunis and is the centre of the city's life; it ends at la porte de France, from which start the tramways that go around the native town, and beyond which is the small Place de la Bourse, with the British consulate and the old Frank quarter, where the Europeans and the various consular repre sentatives live.
The native town itself includes three distinct parts; the Me dina, or central city, which represents the primitive settlement, several gates of which are still standing, and recall the nearly oval form of the ramparts, now replaced by a girdle of streets and boulevards ; the suburb of Bab-Souika on the north, where the Jews live ; and that of Bab-Djazira on the south. The rue de la Kasba and the rue de l'Eglise cross the Medina; they lead to the Djama, Zitouna, or mosque of the olive-tree, which is the seat of an important Muslim university, founded in 732 by the Ommiad governor, Obeid-Allah, and reconstructed by the Aghla bides (9th century) ; most of its buildings date from the 13th to the 15th centuries. Behind the Zitouna are the suks, which are
the most interesting feature of the native town ; they date from the Hafside period, and are composed of little shops opening on to narrow, tortuous streets, covered by arches or roofs of planks, where only foot passengers can go. Each kind of trade, each group of craftsmen, has its special quarter. Tunis possesses many mosques, notably those of the Kasba (13th century) and Sidi Mahrez (17th century), but Christians may not enter them.
The port of Tunis was constituted in 1893 by the digging of a sea channel more than Do km. long, with a depth of 61 metres, recently increased to 9 metres; this channel gives access to a basin 12 hectares in extent ; a second basin, for the export of phosphates, was made in 1905; 3,985 ships, registering 3,589,000 tons have entered the port of Tunis-la-Goulette ; the tonnage of merchandise has reached 1,695,000 tons and the number of passengers iii,000.
The pop. of Tunis (1931) was 202,405, of which 89,801 were Muslim, 25,399 Jews, and 87,205 Europeans (33,649 French, Italians, 5,529 Maltese, 1,570 various other Europeans). If the suburban population be added, the combined total of natives and Europeans would be near 225,000.
South-east of the city, along the valley of the Wadi Melain, are hundreds of large stone arches, magnificent remains of the Roman aqueduct from Zaghwan to Carthage. At Zaghwan (38 m. by rail from Tunis), over the spot whence the spring which sup plies the aqueduct issues from the hill, are the ruins of a beautiful Temple of the Waters. The spring is now diverted direct into the aqueduct and is not visible at the surface.
Tunis existed in the Carthaginian epoch, but its importance dates only from the Muslim conquest ; it was then that Tunis replaced Carthage politically and commercially. It became capital towards the end of the 9th century, under the Aghlabides, and reached its greatest prosperity in the Hafside period, when it is said to have surpassed Cairo. Attacked in 1270 by Saint Louis, who died under its walls, it was taken by Keir-ed-Din Barberousse in 1533. Charles V. took possession of it in 1535; the Spanish were driven out in 1569, re-took it in 1573, but ceded it to the Turks in 1574. Since then the history of Tunis is merged in that of Tunisia (q.v.).