Sousse, Sūsah, orSoussa (Arabic:سوسة,IPA:[ˈsuːsa]ⓘ), is a city inTunisia, capital of theSousse Governorate. Located 140 km (87 mi) south of the capitalTunis, the city has 271,428 inhabitants(2014). Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on theGulf of Hammamet, which is a part of theMediterranean Sea. Its economy is based on transport equipment, processed food,olive oil, textiles, and tourism. It is home to theUniversité de Sousse.
Sousse andSoussa are both French spellings of theArabic nameSūsa. The present city has also grown to include the ruins ofHadrumetum, which hadmany names in several languages duringantiquity.[1][2][3]
Sousse is between twowadis: the Wadi Bliban (and its tributary the Wadi al-Kharrub) to the north and northwest and the Wadi al-Halluf to the southeast.[5] The subsoil is mostly sedimentary with some deep alluvial deposits, which are more recent closer to the coast.[5] Winters are generally mild, there is an average of 69 days of rainfall per year, and there is a lot of sunshine year-round with relatively few cloudy days.[5]
The Municipality of Sousse is the capital of agovernorate that extends over 2669 km2.[6] It is divided into four municipal districts:[7]Sousse Nord,Sousse Sud,Sousse Médina andSousse Riadh. The first two were created on 11 February 1976 and the last two on 19 February 1982. Its main constituencies andDelegation are four in number: Sousse Sidi Abdelhamid, Sousse Médina, Sousse Jawhara and Sousse Riadh. Its geographic code is 31.
The city featured in theThird Sicilian War, theSecond andThird Punic Wars (in the latter of which it secured additional territory and special privileges by aidingRome against what was left of the Carthaginians), andCaesar's Civil War, when it was the scene of Caesar's famously deft recovery: upon tripping while coming ashore, he dealt with the pooromen this threatened to become by grabbing handfuls of dirt and proclaiming "I have you now, Africa!" (Latin:Teneo te Africa!)[13] The second city inRoman Africa after Carthage, it became the capital of theprovince ofByzacena during theDiocletianic Reforms. Its native sons included the juristSalvius Julianus, the emperorClodius Albinus, and numerousChristiansaints. The Roman and Byzantinecatacombs beneath the city are extensive: they were mainly investigated in 1913-1927 by French missionaries and soldiers.[14]
TheVandals sacked Hadrumetum in 434 but it remained a place of importance withintheir kingdom;a bishop andproconsul were martyred there during the Vandals' periodicforced conversions of their subjects toArianism. TheByzantine Empire reconquered the town in 534 during theVandal War and engaged in a public works program that included new fortifications and churches. The town was sacked during theUmayyad Caliphate's 7th-centuryconquest of North Africa. According to a 1987ICOMOS 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]
Muslim Arab armies rapidly spreadArab culture across what had been a thoroughly Romanized and Christianized landscape. Under theAghlabids, Susa was established near the ruins of Hadrumetum and served as their main port. Their827 invasion of Sicily was mainly launched from the town's harbor. After the Byzantine city ofMelite (modernMdina onMalta) wascaptured by the Aghlabids in 870,marble from its churches was used to build theRibat.[15] 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 byNorman Sicily in the 12th century; it fell to theOttoman Empire in the 16th; and it was bombarded by aFrench andVenetian fleet in the 18th.
Medieval Susa was known for its textile industries, producing silk andflax fabrics calledSūsī. Especially renowned were its robes calledshuqqas, some of which were mass-produced and soldready-to-wear throughout the Mediterranean.[16]
After the decline ofMahdia in the 15th and 16th centuries, Susa remained as the most important town in the Sahel region, with a population of about 15,000.[5]
Damage to the port of Sousse after an Allied bombing raid, June 1943
Tunisia became aFrench protectorate in 1881. Around the end of the 19th century, Sousse had a population of 7,000 and was the second-most-important city in Tunisia after Tunis itself.[5] At this point, the entire population of Sousse lived in the walledmedina.[5] The medina was surrounded by agricultural settlements, two of which -Kala Kebira andMsaken - were more densely populated than the city itself.[5] The French Protectorate reinforced Sousse's role as a commercial and administrative center by establishing public buildings, enlarging the city's port, and building railways.[5] Between 1896 and 1911, railways were built connecting Sousse with Tunis, Kairouan, Sfax, Mahdia,Moknin, andHenshir Suwatir.[5] Food industries were also established in the city.[5]
Before theFirst 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]
The first developments outside themedina walls were begun during this period, but they were home to a relatively small number of people until after theSecond World War.[5] Sousse was devastated by the war and suffered 39 bombardments between December 1942 and May 1943.[5] In 1946, after the war was over, the authorities decided to give a high priority to reconstruction efforts in Sousse.[5]
When Tunisia became independent in 1956, Sousse was made awileya capital and it continued to expand in all directions.[5] Over the course of the 20th century, its growth was explosive: from just 8,577 residents in 1885, it had grown to 134,835 residents in 1994.[5] Its physical area had also increased massively, from a compact 29hectares in 1881 to 3,100 hectares in 1992.[5] Thesecondary andtertiary sectors of the economy also grew accordingly.[5]
Sousse has retained the Arabian look and feel it 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. With a population of about 200,000, Sousse retains a medieval heart of narrow, twisted streets, akasbah andmedina, itsribat fortress and long wall on theMediterranean. Surrounding it is a modern city of long, straight roads and more widely spaced buildings.
Sousse was the site of thechess interzonal in 1967, made famous when AmericanGrandmasterBobby Fischer withdrew from the tournament even though he was in first place at the time.[17]
On 26 June 2015, a lone gunman, 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.
As of 2019, Sousse's population was 737,027.[18] 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.[19]
The city contains the University of Sousse, formerly known as the University of the Center, including its Ibn El Jazzar, Faculty of Medicine, the Sousse National School of Engineers, and the Higher Institute of Music of Sousse, founded in 1999.
There are 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 and the Constantine College.
Sousse is served by a hospital, the Hospital of Sahloul, the largest in the region.
Sousse's most important economic activity takes place in thetertiary sector, which employs over 50% of the city's workforce and includes administration, education, healthcare, trade, communications, and banking.[5] Not far behind is thesecondary sector, which employs another 45% of the city's workers and includes industries like textiles and leather, construction, chemicals, electronics, and mechanical and electrical components.[5] The small remainder is engaged in theprimary sector, mainly fishing.[5] Although smaller than the port in Sfax, Sousse has a port that serves an important commercial outlet for central Tunisia, particularly for the regions around Kairouan and Kasserine.[5]
Sousse is the third largest city in Tunisia afterTunis andSfax. Although it is associated witholive oil manufacture and has other industries, tourism predominates today. Anolive grove covering more than 2,500 km2 (965 sq mi) constitutes one of its main riches sinceantiquity. The busy port near downtown adds a touch of liveliness to its activity. Sousse also had manyoil wells in the area during its colonial period.
Sousse is an important tourist resort. It has ahot 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 byorchards andolive groves.
Only 20 km (12 mi) fromMonastir andMonastir 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 toPort 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 a popular tourist destination, especially due to its nightlife. The season traditionally begins at the start of June and finishes on the first weekend of October with the closing parties.
Intercity buses and red-strip microbuses (so-calledlouages) 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. The600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in)Sousse–Kairouan Decauville railway operated from 1882 to 1996, before it was regauged to1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge.
Amedina, surrounded by its city walls and fortifications, is of historical interest. The medina includes open and covered bazaars (souks). Buildings of historical interest include theribat castle, the central mosque, and a historical museum in theCasbah with mosaics from the area's many Roman villas. TheCarthaginiancatacombs can be visited.
UNESCO declared themedina of Sousse aWorld Heritage Site in 1988, citing among various things its preservation from modern development.
The Kantaoui Port, is a touristic station in the form of a Port. It was built in 1979 specifically as a tourist center.[20]
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.
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).
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.[22]
Salvius Julianus or Julian the Jurist, a master jurist, public official, and politician who served in the Roman imperial state under four successive emperors.
Primasius of Hadrumetum, Roman bishop and exegete, noted for his Commentary on the Apocalypse
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