Current Time in Sfax, Tunisia

Sfax is the second city of Tunisia, standing on the Mediterranean coast where the shoreline curves into the Gulf of Gabès, about two hundred and seventy kilometres south of Tunis. Behind the port stretch endless groves of olive trees, planted in orderly ranks across the dry plain, and offshore lie the low, palm-covered Kerkennah Islands. The sea here is shallow and tidal, an unusual feature in the Mediterranean, and the coastal flats have supported fishing and sponge diving for centuries.

The city proper has around three hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, while the wider governorate exceeds a million, making it the industrial and commercial counterweight to the capital. Sfax handles a very large share of Tunisian exports, above all olive oil, of which the country is one of the leading producers in the world. Phosphate processing, chemicals, fishing, food industries, textiles and shipping all contribute, and the city has a national reputation for hard work, thrift and entrepreneurial energy.

A Roman town called Taparura occupied the site, but the modern city dates from 849, when the Aghlabid rulers of Ifriqiya founded a walled settlement here. Its formidable ramparts, rebuilt many times, still enclose the medina and are among the best preserved in North Africa. Sfax prospered through the medieval centuries on trade with Sicily, Egypt and the Sahara, resisted Norman, Spanish and Ottoman pressures, and became a centre of resistance during the French protectorate. Heavy bombing during the Second World War destroyed much of the modern quarter, which was rebuilt afterwards.

The medina is the great attraction, entered through the monumental Bab Diwan gateway. Inside, covered souks specialise in perfume, fabric, gold, spices and traditional crafts, and the Great Mosque with its stepped minaret stands at the heart of the maze. The Dar Jellouli museum, housed in a splendid seventeenth-century merchant mansion, displays costumes, calligraphy, furniture and painted woodwork of old Sfax. The archaeological museum keeps Roman mosaics from the region, and the elegant white town hall and colonial avenues outside the walls make a striking contrast. Ferries carry visitors to the Kerkennah Islands, where fishermen still use ancient palm-frond traps and life moves slowly among the date palms.

Sfax has a serious literary and musical culture, several theatres and festivals, and a distinctive cuisine that features charmoula with dried fish, grilled seafood, spicy harissa and pastries made with sesame and dates. Cafés along the seafront and around the medina walls are busy from morning until late.

The city has an international airport, a busy commercial port, railway connections to Tunis, Gabès and the phosphate mining region, and motorway links along the coast. The University of Sfax is one of the largest in Tunisia, with strong faculties of medicine, engineering and business, and gives the city a substantial student population.

Sfax is valued for its authenticity, its remarkable walled medina and its role as the working engine of the Tunisian economy.