TUNIS, one of the Barbary States, situated in the central part of tho northern coast of Africa, and forming a province of the Turkish empire, is bounded N. and E. by the Mediterranean, W. by Freuch Africa, and S. by the Beled-el-Jerid. Its greatest length from north to south is about 300 miles, while its breadth from west to east varies from 65 to 140 miles. The area is about 30,000 square miles. In this estimate the country south of 33' N. lat., which is part of the Sahara, is not included.
Occupying the countries formerly known as Zeugitana and Byzacium, and projecting towards the centre of the Mediterranean to within 80 miles of Sicily, Tunis is important, not only on account of its position, but for the ports it possesses on a coast measuring about 400 miles. These advantages made its inhabitants a warlike aud corn.
mercial people in the time of the Carthaginians, the strength of the barbarians and the Saracens against Southern Europe is the middle ages, and an unceasing annoyance to the Christian states after it fell into the hanai of the Moslem pirates in the 16th century.
That portion of the country which is situated north of 36° N. lat., is in general hilly, in parts mountainous, but there are also several plains of some extent. The southern districts however, which com prehend more than three-fourths of the area, are level ; such ridges as occur are neither extensive nor elevated, with the exception of the Jebel Usaahtt.
Rea-Coast.—The northern coast, from the boundary-lino of Tunis and Algiers to Ras Sidi Ali-el-Mekki, or Cape Farina, is rocky and high. The western part of it, as far as Ras al-Man-Shikhar, or Cape Serat, is steep, and the monutains near it rise to a considerable elevation : It Is also mostly wooded, but east of that promontory the coast is much lower, and in many parts considerable tracts of barren sand extend from the summits of the hills to the water's edge. The most eastern portion, which lies east of flits Sidi Booshusha, or Capo Zibeeb, contains only hills, most of which are covered with large plantations of olives, between which there are a few tracts of yellow surd.
The coast here takes a sudden direction to the southward iota the Bay of Biserta, so called from the former town of that name (now Benzart), the 1 ippo-Zarytus of the ancients, situated upon a narrow channel which connects the waters of two magnificent lakes with the sea. It was formerly the safest seaport of Northern Africa, and
was a great naval station of the Barbary corsairs; but the channel is now choked up by neglect, and the town, although governed by an agha, and containing 10,000 or 12,000 people, presents the miserable remains of a place which flourished at no very remote period. Farther to the east, about 10 miles, is the headland called Ras Zibeeb; and 14 miles beyond this Cape Fariva (sometimes called Cnpo di Guardia), the Promontorium Apollinis of the ancient', forms the western limit of the great Gulf of Tunis: its Moorish name is Ran Sidi Ali-el Mekki.
The coast of the Bay of Tunis, from Ras Sidi Ali-e1-31elki to Ras Ghamart, is low and generally swampy. But along that projecting tract on which the ruins of Carthage are found the coast is rocky, though in general slightly elevated above the sea. iCanruaes.] The shores of the innermost recces of the Bay of Tunis are low, and iu many parte marshy. From Ras Winn to Raa Adder, or Cape Ben, and thence to Ras 3Iustapha, the coast is alternately rocky and high, and low and swampy.
A few miles within Ras Sidi Ali-el-Mekki the river 3Iejerdah, the ancient Bagradsa, falls into the eea through a lagoon, comrnouly called Port Farina, upon which stands the once populous town of Char-el-31 doh, with its ports, moles, dockyard, and arsenal ; where, at the beginning of the present century, large frigates rode at anchor : but the decline of the Moorish power and the filling up of the port by the alluvium of the river have left it a deserted place, more wretched than Biserta. At the eastern limit of the Gulf of Tunis and beyond the two small islands of Zembrie, or Zowamores, which lie at the entrance of the gulf, is Cape Bon (Raa Adder), the Pro• moratorium Mercurii of the ancients. The coast here takes a sudden direction to the south, as fur as Ras-el-Zargiss, the frontier of the kingdom of Tripoli.