Tunis

Tunis occupies an isthmus between the shallow lagoon of Lake Tunis and the salt lake of Sebkha Sejoumi, opening east onto the sparkling Gulf of Tunis. Few Mediterranean capitals pack so many distinct eras into a single metropolitan shoreline: within thirty minutes on public rails, you can move from the 9th-century Aghlabid domes and 18th-century Ottoman palaces of the UNESCO-listed Medina of Tunis to the tree-lined arcades of Avenue Habib Bourguiba, the matchless Roman floor mosaics of the Bardo National Museum, and the Punic harbours and clifftop white-and-blue lanes of Carthage and Sidi Bou Said.

Start with our first-timer briefing and the best things to do in Tunis.

Tunis-Carthage International Airport (TUN) sits only 8 kilometres from central Place de l'Indépendance, making arrival one of the quickest in North Africa. Inside the city, the green Metro Leger trams connect Place de Barcelone and Place du Bardo, while the historic TGM suburban train crosses the causeway over Lake Tunis to La Goulette, Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and La Marsa. See how to get to Tunis and around.

Visitors split roughly in half between the atmospheric courtyard guesthouses (dars) of the old Medina and the seaside villas and boutique hotels of Sidi Bou Said, La Marsa and Gammarth along the northern coast, with French-built Centre Ville offering practical mid-range hotels in between. Compare all options in where to stay in Tunis.

Follow the scent of jasmine and ambergris through Souk el-Attarine to the great courtyard of Zitouna Mosque and the tiled palaces of the Medina, spend a morning marvelling at mythological Roman mosaics inside the Bardo National Museum, and ride the TGM rail out to the Antonine Baths of Carthage and Sidi Bou Said. Full list in things to do in Tunis.

Tunisian cooking is bold, sun-ripened and perfumed with harissa (roasted red chilli paste spiced with caraway and coriander), olive oil and capers: crisp triangular brik à l'oeuf pastries, steaming morning bowls of chickpea lablabi, whole grilled sea bream and red mullet in the port of La Goulette, and hot sugar-dusted bambalouni doughnuts in Sidi Bou Said. Read more in our Bardo, La Goulette and food overview.

Heir to ancient Phoenician and Roman Carthage just down the bay, Tunis rose to prominence at the end of the 7th century around the Zitouna Mosque, flourished as a medieval miniature empire under the 13th- to 16th-century Hafsid dynasty, and acquired its octagonal minarets, painted wooden ceilings and Andalusian craft guilds under Ottoman Dey and Husainid Beylical rule before becoming the capital of independent Tunisia in 1956.