Sousse

Port El kantaoui

Tall palm trees, thousand-year-old fortresses and city walls overlooking long sandy beaches: that just about sums up the Sahel coastline of Tunisia. Steeped in history, yet also modern and bustling, Sousse is a town full of contrasts, its well -preserved medina- with its towering ruins, its souks, its alleyways and its weather- beaten monuments- is sure to leave a lasting impression on you, as will the dynamism of the town, which encompass the port as well as the main shopping and entertainment areas.

 Not far from Sousse is the adjoining resort of Port El Kantaoui, famous for being the “first garden-port in the Mediterranean”. Built in a very Tunisian style, with Arab and Andalusian influences clearly in evidence, Port El Kantaoui is made up of series of leafy hotels, apartment blocks, shops and leisure spots, including a superb golf course and a 340-berth marina.

A historic town

Founded before the birth of Carthage, by the Phoenicians (who called it Hadrumet), Sousse was an autonomous town up until the 6^th century B.C – when it fell under the control of Carthage. After the Punic Wars and the destruction of Carthage by the Romans, Sousse became a prosperous colony under Trajan during the 2^nd century A.D., thus reassuming its status as a prosperous and commercial “fertile city”.

One century later, Hadrumet bore the force of the Romans’ reprisals against Gordien, who had been made emperor following the revolt of thysdrus (today El Jem). The town was reborn, becoming Hunericopolis under the short reign of the Vandals, before being renamed for the third time by the Byzantines. It was during its spell as Justinian polis that it held off the siege of the Arab conqueror Okba Ibn Nafâa –companion of the Prophet and founder of Kairouan. It was under Aghlabids dynasty that the Arabs, at last reconciled with the sea, injected Sousse with a vibrancy which is still evident in some of its monuments.

A strategic maritime town, Sousse subsequently suffered successive occupations by the Normans in the 12^th century, the Spanish in the 16^th century and the French in the 17^th century. During the Second Word War, the agglomeration was bombed several times before being liberated in 1943.

The Medina and other historic sites

Amongst the different attractions on offer in Sousse, the medina is by far the most impressive. The area within the town’s ruins is astonishingly well-preserved and contains monuments of prime importance:

-         The Ribat is a fortress dating back to the 8^th century and was originally intended as a shelter for a community of Muslim ascetics entrusted with the task of manning the coast. In 821 A.D. the Aghlabid emir, Ziyadet Allah added a watchtower for this purpose. In 1968, the Ribat was restored to its original glory.

-         The GREAT mosque was built by the Aghlabid emir Abou El Abbès Mohamed in the year 850 A.D. Its sizeable stone walls, along with the large round towers which stand at the mosque’s corners, might indeed cause you to mistake it for a fortress.

-         The handicraft stalls and the Moorish cafés of the partially-covered souks spread right across the medina.

-         The Kasbah is an imposing citadel which has grown through the centuries and which looks down on the medina from the top of a hill. Its all 30m square tower – the Khalef Tower – is a manar (lighthouse) built in 859, from which visitors can admire a panoramic view over both the town, in entirety and the hinterland.

-         The Museum next to the khalef Tower houses an important collection of mosaics, most of which come from the side of El Jem.

-         The Koubba in an original building constructed in the Middle Ages and surmounted with a dome covered in zigzag-shaped grooves.

-         The Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires, which can be found in the old caravanserai adjacent to the Koubba, takes you on a journey back in time, examining traditional customs (marriage, trades…) with the aid of ancient artefacts.

Amongst the town’s other historic treasures are the Catacombs. Better preserved than those of Rome, the Catacombs stretch over 5 km and contain tombs.

                       Holidays with something for everyone

Golf, yachting, tennis, horse-riding… if you’re looking for an active holiday, you’ll be spoilt for choice in Sousse and Port El Kantaoui. Water sports centres offer a whole range of activities and diving enthusiasts can enjoy colourful, easy-access underwater sites. Several hotels can provide quite extensive sporting equipment for both kids and adults, and only a few minutes from Port El Kantaoui, in Hergla, you’ll find a sizeable go-kart track. Finally, you’ll find that in both of these lively resorts, there is plenty to do in the evenings.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for rest and relaxation, let yourself be pampered in one of the health and thalassotherapy centres on offer. Whatever takes your fancy, you will never grow tired of strolling along the cliff tops and around the yachting harbour, or admiring the great medina and its monuments, or exploring the enchanting Bedouin villages in the surrounding areas. Sousse and Port El Kantaoui are also good base camps for people wanting to go on trips throughout Tunisia.

Thalassotherapy

The birthplace of thalassotherapy in Tunisia, Sousse opened its first centre near a superb beach situated just outside the town centre, in 1994. With the opening of the luxurious Port El Kantaoui Centre, which offers state of the art equipment and medical check-up alongside all treatments, you’d be hard pushed not to find a package that suited you.

In Sousse’s centres, you will discover innovative and exotic treatments such as reiki, Californian massage, ayurveda or shiatsu.

Sophisticated beauty treatment is also available. Whether you’ve come to relax, get back shape or to achieve a specific personal goal, the centres also offer the whole range of treatments generally associated with thalassotherapy, such as whirl pools, sea weed body wraps, aerosols and different types of showers… all in a luxurious, luminous setting surrounded by a friendly and tactful team of therapists.

Golf in El Kantaoui

At the heart of the Port El Kantaoui resort, in the vicinity of the Marina, El Kantaoui Golf Course is a top class course designed by an international team of architects. It is made up of two championship courses each embracing a different morphological terrain: the “Sea Course”, which extends from the beach to the hill, and the “Panorama Course”, which starts at the hill and weaves in and out of the hotels and the resort, offering panoramic views over the whole area.

Ancient features such as old wells, ancestral irrigation canals trees, pomegranates and century-old palm trees are still in place, and have been bolstered by an array of recently-planted sweet-smelling trees.

                            Travelling on from Sousse

Sousse is an ideal from which to explore the major sites and towns of sites northern Tunisia (which can be covered in day).You will need two days, however, to discover the south of the country, which you can explore either by sticking to the coast, or by delving into the interior.