LA TUNISIE

• Capital City : Tunis
• Airport : Tunis-Carthage
• Visa : Europeans and American citizens are not subject to mandatory visa acquisition to enter Tunisia.
• Passeport mandatory (except for Europeans having CIN and a voucher).
• Currency the money is the Tunisian Dinar. 1 Euro is equivalent to 1.8 Tunisian Dinars.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Tunisia is a country which is situated at the tip of North Africa and separated from Europe by the Mediterranean sea.

Tunis, the capital, is at a 2-hours’ flight from Paris and London and 45 minutes from Rome.

Daily flights connect Tunisia to practically all European, African, and Middle-Eastern destinations. Seven international airports and eight seaports connect Tunisia with the rest of the world.

HISTORY

This privileged geographical location has made Tunisia a magnet land since ancient Antiquity.

In the last millennium before Jesus Christ, it was Carthage, the most powerful civilization of the ancient world, then a Roman province following the defeat of Carthage by the Romans.

Conquered by the Arabs around the year 700, Tunisia witnessed eras of extraordinary prosperity. Well ahead of the rest of the world, the Arab-Islamic civilization devoted a privileged place to Tunisia, which would become a real link between the Occident and the Orient.

Later, it would mediate the struggle waged by the Spaniards and the Ottoman Turks for the full supremacy over the Mediterranean.

SOCIETY

La Tunisia is a democratic republic; its population is at present over 10 million inhabitants.

Tunisia is an open country, very hospitable. Its land is a real melting pot in which populations and civilizations of the Mediterranean, Africa, and Europe have met and achieved full integration. This fertile intermingling has shaped the cultural identity of the country and have given its distinctive ‘cachet’/ feature.

The crashing majority of the population is Muslim and the official religion of the country is Islam. The Jewish and Christian communities practice their religion freely and contribute to the enrichment of the cultural diversity in Tunisia. The official language is Arabic. Tunisia is a French-speaking country; French is the second language which is taught after Arabic.

TOURISM

The beauty of Tunisian beaches, its fine and golden sand, its historical and cultural treasures (3000 years of history), its oases in the desert of the Sahara, its mild and sunny climate, its warm welcome, are among the many assets that characterize it and make it every year the most touristic attraction for millions all over the world.

The country is endowed with an important touristic infrastructure with more than 800 hotels, centers of seawater therapy, golf playgrounds, marinas, casinos and leisure spots of all kinds.

TOURISTIC SIGHTS THAT YOU MAY VISIT DURING YOUR STAY IN TUNISIA:

SIDI BOU SAID, a place not to be missed, is a village perched on top of a cliff that opens over Carthage and the Gulf of Tunis, by the sea. The houses, striking white in color with a typical architectural style, border small, sinuous pedestrian streets where taking a walk is a real pleasure. The atmosphere into which the village is immersed, marked by nostalgia and religious density, gives you the impression that you find yourself in an area where the clock no longer ticks.

CARTHAGE founded in 814 B.C. by Alyssa Didon and her fellow Phœnicians, Carthage had been successively Phœnician, Punic, Roman and then Vandal and Byzantine. In light of its several centuries of history, its wealth of different civilizations, the soil has kept multiple vestiges knowingly and patiently exhumated by committed archeologists of within the framework of research institutions and scheduled excavations under the auspices of the National Heritage Institute and the UNESCO. At present, you can only marvel at the diversity and the beauty of these vestiges.