Tourist information

Changing money

The monetary unit of Tunisia is the dinar (TND), which is divided into 1000 millimes. 50,-,20,-,10,- and 5,-dinars notes and 5, - and 1, - dinar coins as well as 500,-, 100,-, 50,-, 20,-, 10,- and 5,- millimes coins are in circulation. 
A Tunisian Dinar (TND) is approximately 0,3 Euro or 0,32 US$. The TND is not convertible abroad so be sure to change only what you need. All foreign currency or traveler's cheque can be converted into dinars. The dinar is available from banks, money changers and hotels during the day. There are cash machines almost everywhere, where withdrawals can be made using Visa or MasterCard. Credit cards (American Express, Dinners Club, MasterCard or Visa) are accepted by all tourist establishments as well as many shops and restaurants. You can also re-exchange, when leaving Tunisia (at the airport), the dinars that you would not have spent, on presentation of Exchange receipts. So keep them in that event.

The history of Tunis in brief

Rebuilt on the ancient site of Tounes during the Arab conquest of Ifriqiyya (7th c.), Tunis was soon equipped with port facilities. During the brief period of the Aghlabid reign (894-905), it was still the capital of Ifriqiyya. Before making Mahdia and Kairouan their respective capitals, the Fatimids and Zirids also ruled Tunis (909-1057). In 1160, the Berber Almowahad rulers continued to take it as their capital. Tunis enjoyed its golden age from 1228 to 1574 with the Hafsids, a Maghrebian dynasty descended from the Almohaves, who also took it as the capital of their kingdom. Taken by the Ottomans in 1574, it lost its status as capital and enjoyed a period of commercial prosperity thanks to its merchant communities and piracy (the golden age of the “race”). Under the Husseinids (17th-18th c.), it experienced intense architectural activity and acquired the appearance it still has today.

Suburbs of Tunis

 1- Tunis El Médina

A visit to the medina, the ancient city, takes on a special meaning. It's a journey through time that takes you, step by step, through a maze of subtle light and shadow compositions, to the historic heart of the city of Tunis, this venerable place that you must discover with an attentive eye before letting yourself be conquered by its charm.

By virtue of its geographical and human importance, its architectural style and its typical special organization, this city represents an accomplished model of Arab urban civilization in the Maghreb, and which the international organization UNESCO has elected to the cultural heritage of mankind, the safeguarding of which now concerns the universal community.

Self-sufficient, the city is home to residences, palaces, cemeteries, mausoleums, hammams, schools, medersas, ovens, warehouses, craftsmen's stalls, squares and gardens. Under the protection of its patron saint Sidi Mahrez, crowned with white domes, terraces and slender minarets, the medina develops into a tightly woven network of buildings assembled in clusters and criss-crossed by a dense network of streets, alleys and cul-de-sacs. The city's overall layout obeys the rule of preserving the intimate Haram space and separating residential and commercial quarters. Thus, the original commercial district was built around the mosque, forming a quadrilateral where noble trades such as booksellers, perfumers, silk manufacturers, chechia makers, embroiderers, tailors, jewelers, wine cellars and delicatessens were grouped together - like so many alveoli in a beehive. The hierarchy of guilds pushed the noisier or more polluting trades to the outskirts of the city. A living entity, the medina retains its mystery and indefinable charm, while remaining welcoming.

2- The Zitouna mosque

It was founded thirteen centuries ago, on a narrow strip of land separating Lake Sedjoumi from Lake Tunis, on the site of a rural market where the great roads criss-crossing Roman Africa once converged. It was here, where people met and traded, that Hassen Ibn Nooman, conqueror of Byzantine Carthage, chose to build the Zitouna mosque -of the olive tree- with its emblematic name. A founding act par excellence, the construction of this sacred monument was to determine the future course of the city, which ousted Kairouan and Mahdia and assumed, alone, the role of capital in its multiple functions: religious, residential, political and economic. The city was an enclosed space, surrounded by ramparts and connected to the outside world by gates.

Destroyed no less than three times, in Punic and Roman times and after the departure of the Crusaders of St. Louis, Carthage is still with us today. Admittedly, few vestiges remain, but the Punic Ports, the Tophet, the Baths of Antoninus, the Antiquarium on Odeon Hill and the Museum of Carthage. A treasure trove of historical treasures. From the hill of Byrsa, you can admire the Gulf of Tunis, where the Djebel Boukornine appears to float above still, blue water.
Many of the painters of the “Ecole de Tunis” were fascinated by this astonishing marriage of mountain and sea, and immortalized it.

 

4- Sidi Bou Said

 

A protected site set on the slopes of Jebel El Manar, overlooking the Carthage coast and the Gulf of Tunis, the ancient maraboutic village of Sidi Bou Saïd is a small paradise of Mediterranean colors. As you stroll along the cobbled streets, you'll discover a tangle of whitewashed houses broken by the blue of moucharabieh windows and wrought-iron balconies. Heavy studded doors open onto secret gardens lined with ceramics and girdled with bougainvillea.

 

 

5- Bardo MuseumToday,

 

 

 

The Bardo is one of the most important museums in the world. Its reputation stems from the quality and variety of its archaeological finds, jewels of Tunisian history spanning several millennia and several civilizations.However, the building itself is not lacking in interest.Built in the second half of the 19th century, the building was intended to serve a palatial rather than a cultural function; however, when it became a museum in 1882, and was thus named the Musée Alaoui - after the sovereign of the time, Ali Bey (1882-1902) - it underwent a happy transgression of usage that turned it into a Mecca of culture and civilization.In 1899, the authorities of the time added a second space to it, the small palace that would henceforth house the Islamic art collections. Today, the architectural quality of these two palaces makes them an integral part of the national museum.
Although the buildings underwent a number of modifications to suit their new purpose, they have retained their original character.Drawing on the canons of Tunisian architecture - a blend of various influences, notably Maghrebian, Turkish and Italian - the Bardo included numerous rooms with different functions, all distinguished by their conviviality and the originality of their ornamentation.These include

•  the reception hall, with its sixteen-sided dome of cut wood painted in shimmering colors on a gold background
• the large covered patio with its ceiling featuring four chandeliers hanging from pendants covered with molded plaster ornaments
•  the music room with its ceiling decorated with floral motifs and its two tribunes, one reserved for the women - the princesses - the other for the musicians. the latter being supported by slender white marble columns inlaid with red marble rods;
•  the private apartments, dominated by wall decorations made of finely cut plaster coverings featuring interlacing, meandering, knotwork and foliage, all motifs created using the “nakch Hdida” technique;
• the earthenware panels that cover various walls, veritable tableaux admirably executed...

So, by its very design and décor, the Bardo Museum is a historical monument in its own right!Let's turn now to the collections and the splendors housed and exhibited in these spaces!What can we say other than that some of them are unique, exceptional!Take the mosaics! Certainly, this is the largest collection in the world: history, mythology, religion, daily life, so many themes and scenes jostling one another in a great shimmer of colors and tones!

Here's Virgil writing the Aeneid; here's Ulysses tied to the ship's mast! So many rhythms, those of time (the four seasons or the signs of the zodiac), those of people (scenes of daily life, work, hunting, leisure, gladiatorial combat, circus games...), those of culture!

Of course, the Bardo also contains many other collections and items of Tunisian material culture, from prehistoric times to the present day.They all bear witness to a plural, open and conciliatory Tunisia!Here, too, history is woven into the fabric of the works; there are many stops along the way, from the 40,000-year-old hermaion of el-Guettar to the ethnographic collection relating to daily life in modern Tunisia!