Transcript TUNISIA – PAST AND PRESENT

TUNISIA – PAST AND PRESENT
Fathi Neifar
TUNISIA
Tunisia is a country in North Africa. It is bordered in the north and east by the
Mediterranean Sea, in the west by Algeria, and in the south by Libya.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Tunisia has four physical regions:
The Atlas Mountains. The highest mountain is 1,550 metres, near the Algerian
border.
The central plateau: flat but with low mountains, not more than 760 m high.
The Sahel
The Sahara: the desert in the south. It occupies nearly one third of Tunisia.
The area of Tunisia is about 164,000 square kilometres.
The Medjerda is Tunisia’s only river with a year-round flow.
The north has hot dry summers (in coastal areas the average temperature is about
30 degrees C) and moderately rainy winters (about 15 degrees on the coast).
In the south it is hot and dry: the tem[perature there often exceeds 43 degrees C.
ECONOMY
Tunisia has various but limited resources:
Tourism:
Thanks to Tunisia’s warm climate, seaside and desert resorts and Roman ruins, it
attracts many tourists, especially in the warm season.
Besides, Tunisia has phosphate mining. Petroleum was found in 1964 and since
then has contributed to Tunisia’s economy. Besides, there is a big banking
activity and many Tunisians work abroad and bring in money.
About half the inhabitants work in agricultture. Only large estates and
cooperatives use modern farming methods. Tunisia exports fine dates, olive oil
and oranges.
The basic currency unit is thev dinar (less than one US $).
THE PEOPLE
Tunisia has about 10,500,000 inhabitants at the present time. They are
descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, of the Romans, of the Arabs and
Berbers.
98 % of tunisians are Muslims. The first language is Arabic, French is widely
spoken; and now English is common and popular.
GOVERNMENT
Tunisia has a presedent, a Prime Minister and a Parliament. The country is
divided into 24 provinces called ’gouvernorates’
HISTORY:
Phoenicians: from 1200 BC
The Roman and Christian era: from 146 BC
The Vandals: from 432
The Byzantines: from 533
The Arab Conquest: 647
Turkish rule: from 1574
The French Protectorate: 1881-1956
We had monarchs, called ‘BEYS’ up to 1957, then Tunisia became a republic.
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