Le Kram is a town and commune in the

Tunis Governorate Tunis Governorate ( ' ; ) is the smallest and most populated of the twenty-four governorates (provinces) of Tunisia. It covers an urban and suburban area on the Gulf of Tunis on the north-east coast covering and has a population of 1,075,306 ( ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. Situated between

La Goulette La Goulette (, ), in Arabic Halq al-Wadi ( '), is a municipality and the port of Tunis, Tunisia. La Goulette is located at around on a sandbar between Lake of Tunis, Lake Tūnis and the Gulf of Tunis. The port, located 12km east of Tunis, is th ...

, the port of

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, and

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

, it opens onto the

Gulf of Tunis The Gulf of Tunis () is a large Mediterranean bay in north-eastern Tunisia, extending for from Cape Farina in the west to Cape Bon in the east. Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, lies at the south-western edge of the Gulf, as have a series of s ...

to the east and the

Lake of Tunis The Lake of Tunis ( ''Buḥayra Tūnis''; ) is a natural lagoon located between the Tunisian capital city of Tunis and the Gulf of Tunis (Mediterranean Sea). The lake covers a total of 37 square kilometres, in contrast to its size its depth ...

to the west. As of 2004 it had a population of 58,152.Recensement de 2004 (Institut national de la statistique)
Before 2001, Le Kram was a municipal district within the municipality bordering La Goulette. The original name of the city was ''Aga El Kram''; it was Gallicised as ''Le Kram''. The word ''kram'' in

Tunisian Arabic Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian (), is a Varieties of Arabic, variety of Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its 13 million speakers as ''Tūnsi'', "Tunisian" or ''Maghrebi Arabic, Derja'' (; meaning "common or everyday dialect") t ...

refers to a fig tree or a fruit tree in general. Professor

Mohamed El Aziz Ben Achour Mohamed El Aziz Ben Achour (Arabic: محمد العزيز بن عاشور) is a Tunisian politician and historian born on 5 January 1951; he specializes in urban, social and cultural history of modern Tunisia and the Islamic civilization. He was ...

says of the town's founder:

"Mustapha Aga ..living peacefully in his palace in the area of Carthage, in the midst of an extensive orchard with fig trees, the source of the name of the village which was established later in this location... "

Ahmad I ibn Mustafa Ahmad I (), 2 December 1805 Ibn Abi Dhiaf, ''Présent des hommes de notre temps. Chroniques des rois de Tunis et du pacte fondamental'', vol. IV, éd. Maison tunisienne de l'édition, Tunis, 1990, p. 12 – 30 May 1855Ibn Abi Dhiaf, ''op. cit.'' ...

Bey of Tunis Bey, also spelled as Baig, Bayg, Beigh, Beig, Bek, Baeg, Begh, or Beg, is a Turkic languages, Turkic title for a chieftain, and a royal, aristocratic title traditionally applied to people with special lineages to the leaders or rulers of various ...

under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, gave this orchard to Mustafa Aga, who served from 1837 to 1855 as war minister in the

Kingdom of Tunis The Beylik of Tunis () was a de facto independent state located in present-day Tunisia, formally part of the Ottoman Empire. It was ruled by the Husainid dynasty from 1705 until the establishment of the French protectorate of Tunisia in 1881. T ...

. Under the French protectorate, Kram was home to many Europeans who built houses along the beach, some of them modest and others sumptuous. These villas have been replaced by military training centers and the residential area of Kram Salammbo. One can still admire some of the gardens that surrounded the houses; the oldest were built in a traditional Tunisian style, while the larger homes of the bourgeoisie were built in a purely Italian style, exemplified by La Carmencita, a small villa located on the street Sakiet Sidi Youssef (formerly Rue Jules Ferry). The town was developed mainly as a result of the opening of the Tunis-Goulette-Marsa or TGM railway combining the Khereddine line and the

-Carthage Salammbô line. The center of Salammbô contains, among other curiosities, the remains of the port of Punic Carthage, the Tophet (or sacred area) of the ancient Carthaginians and the buildings of the Institute and Museum of Oceanography

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* Populated places in Tunis Governorate Communes of Tunisia Tunisia geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{Tunisia-geo-stub

See also

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