Established in 9th century before. J-C, Sousse is the third city of modern Tunisia, after Tunis and Sfax. Of its three thousand years of history, it constituted a heritage of a matchless wealth, which it keeps between ramparts strengthened by its Medina. The Big Mosque, the archaeological museum, the Ribat and Catacombs are so many extraordinary historic sites. Tourist area, Mediterranean city in the typical charm, Sousse spreads its beaches on one of the most beautiful coast of Tunisia, up to the famous port El Kantaoui.
Sit down one moment at the afternoon, in a café, in front of the sea, near ramparts strengthened by the Medina, where a sublime view opens at the front of the sea To walk on the beach and to bath where the sea seems the most peaceful and the clearest water to Stroll through streets livened up by the city, between the sea and the displays were colored with the traders and the luxurious stores: such are the routes of the informed walkers, those who know Sousse, to have been born there, or for the credit note already visited.
A luxurious cultural heritage Of its 3000 years of history, Sousse preserves testimonies of a rare magnificence today. For the visitor keen on antiquity, its archaeological museum (the 2nd of the country after that of Bardo) offers edifying set vestiges of former Hadrumète. He owes especially his fame to the magnificent collection of Roman mosaics of four first ones centuries AD. The subterranean galleries of Catacombs, Christian necropolis of the first ones centuries, are the other antique inescapable archeological site.
Completely registered inside its impressive medieval surrounding wall, the old city, built on a hillside, stages in a vast amphitheater in front of the sea. This privileged position conferred it, for a long time, its particular stamp so admirable, and which bewitched so many artists travelers. With its 31 hectares and its 7000 inhabitants, this medina is only an immense district of a tentacular urban area 150 times as vast today. It remains nevertheless the geographical, historic and neuralgic center there, and gives it this essential supplement of soul which it needs more than ever. This site, completely completely taken on in the majesty of the centuries, indeed comes to light to the visitor as an inexhaustible source of emotion, delight and nostalgia.
Sousse is rightly proud of sheltering, inside his belt of ramparts, a homogeneous set of vestiges of an exceptional wealth. Incredible luck: his most symbolic monuments, such Ribat, the Big Mosque, the Kasbah with its tower overhanging all the site, the impressive surrounding wall of bulwarks which runs on more of 2 Km, Kobba and tank of Sofra, reached us in a state of remarkable preservation. Inherited from the golden age of the Islam (of the 9th in the 11th century), these magnificent monuments which appear among the most beautiful architectural jewels of the Arab-Muslim world, make of the old city an authentic open-air museum. By protecting its cultural heritage, its identity and certain ancestral lifestyle, The respectable medina of Sousse indubitably stands out as the archetypal commemorative site, the agent of an inestimable historic legacy.
