Souk El Bey is one of the

souks A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the W ...

of the

medina of Tunis The Medina of Tunis is the medina quarter of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. The Medina contains some 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and fountains dating from t ...

Location

The souk is near

Souk El Berka Souk El Berka is one of the souks of the medina of Tunis. The market traders specialize in the jewellery trade. History El Berka was built by Yusuf Dey in 1612 and was meant to sell slaves coming from the Sub-Saharan Africa. Slaves of European ...

Souk Ech-Chaouachine Souk Ech-Chaouachine is one of the souks of the medina of Tunis. Divided into three parts, it is specialized in chachia trading. History According to the chronicler Al Wazir Al Sarraj, Mohamed Bey El Mouradi ordered the construction of the so ...

as well as

Dar El Bey Dar El Bey ( ar, دار الباي), also known as the government palace ( ar, قصر الحكومة) is an old palace in the medina of Tunis, more precisely in the city's Kasbah. Nowadays, it serves as the office of the Head of Government o ...

, which is where the government center is located.

History

Initiated by

Hammuda ibn Ali Abu Mohammed Hammuda ibn Ali Pasha (9 December 1759 – 15 September 1814) ( ar, أبو محمد حمودة ابن علي باشا) was the fifth leader of the Husainid dynasty and the ruler of Tunisia from 26 May 1782 until his death on 15 Sep ...

, it is specialized in trading carpets as well as silk textiles and chachia which was the most important industry in the 19th century.

Products

Today most traders deal in jewellery and

precious stones A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...

Notes and references

{{Coord missing, Tunisia

Bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

Jewellery districts