TUNIS, capital of the African state of the same name, lies on the west side of a small lake or lagoon, near the s. w. extremity of the lake of Tunis, about three m. from the ruins of ancient Carthage. It occupies rising ground, and both the city proper and the suburbs are surrounded by walls. The streets are narrow, unpaved, and dirty, but the bazaars are well furnished and many of the mosques are really splendid, partic ularly the mosque of Jussuf, which has beautiful marble pillars. The palace of the bey is probably the finest building in Tunis; the ceilings glitter with gold and carmine and azure. All the principal rooms open into a large court-yard paved with marble, and surrounded by arcades supported on marble columns, while fountains everywhere dif fuse a perpetual and delicious coolness. The citadel, begun by Charles V., and finished by don John of Austria, is interesting from its collection of old arms, and was formerly tke great slave-prison of Tunis. There are also Roman Catholic and Greek churches,
Jews' synagogues, an Italian theater, and large barracks in Tunis. Tunis is the com mercial center of the state. The imports in 1876 were £345,000, and exports £250,000. In the same year, 1024 vessels entered and cleared the port. Tunis has silk and woolen manufactures, as shawls, tapestries, mantles, burnooses, caps, 'turbans, colored cloths, also leather, soap, wax, and olive oil, all of which it exports, together with grain, fruits, cattle, fish, ivory, gold-dust, coral, etc. Pop. stated at 120,000.
The lagoon or lake of Tunis is shallow, and communicates with the gulf of Tunis, an inlet of the Mediterranean, by a narrow strait called the Goletta. The gulf itself is 45 m. broad at the entrance—between cape Bon and cape Farina—and extends inland for 30 miles. The anchorage is good.