Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located 270 km (170 mi) southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of RomanTaparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has a population of 330,440 (census 2014). The main industries are phosphate, olive and nut processing, fishing (largest fishing port in Tunisia) and international trade. The city is the second-most populous after the capital, Tunis.
The city hall of Sfax is in the center of the modern city and opens on Habib Bourguiba Street in parallel with the main entrance of the historic city. The Municipal Palace draws attention to the magnificence and beauty of its exterior architecture and its interior decorations and masterpieces. This unique landmark was designed by French architect Rafael Guy, who blended the Arab-Moriscan character with the European character. The project of the construction of the Palace of the scourge began at the beginning of the twentieth century, where the municipality issued a tender for this purpose in the newspaper Adebash Svaxian on 30 June 1904 and began construction works in late 1905 and ended in 1906. In 1912, he began to expand gradually until around 1943. After the Second World War, the town hall was completed in 1955.
Apart from Borj Ennar and three other towers that disappeared, the walls of the medina kept the same original architecture since 1306. These are 2,750 meters long and have 34 dungeons. Their height varies between seven and eleven meters. Originally, the medina had only two gates: Bab Jebli, also known as Bab Dhahraoui (northern door), and Bab Diwan or Bab Bahr (the sea door). Yet, in the 20th century and because of the economic development and the huge increase of the population, new doors had to be created to reduce the flow from these two main doors such as Bab El Ksar and Bab Jebli Jedid.
Like most of the other medinas of Tunisia, Sfax has its own kasbah. It is a desert fortress, located in the southwestern corner of the medina. It was used for different purposes throughout history, first, a control tower built by the Aghlabids on the coast, then the seat of the municipal government, and then the main army barracks. Its construction was preceded by the deployment of the wall and the medina quarter. Today it is served as a museum of traditional architecture.
