La Goulette (, ), in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Halq al-Wadi ( '), is a municipality and 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 ...

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 ...

. La Goulette is located at around on a sandbar between Lake Tūnis and the Gulf of Tunis. The port, located 12km east of Tunis, is the point of convergence of Tunisia's major road and rail networks. La Goulette is linked to Tunis by the TGM railway and to Europe by a ferry service.

Origin of the name

The name derives from the "gullet" or "river's throat", a channel where the city is located, and not from the ship type

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

, called ''goélette'', ''gulet'', ''goleta'' or ''goletta'' in French, Turkish, Spanish and Italian.

Transit activities

In addition to its transit and cruise activities, the port of La Goulette also receives ships carrying cargoes such as cars, and bulk cereals. It handles a large portion of the country's imports and much of its exports (principally phosphates, iron ore, and fruits and vegetables). However, the development plan of the port provides for its specialization as a port exclusively reserved for passenger and tourist traffic.

History

The

kasbah A kasbah (, also ; , , Maghrebi Arabic: ), also spelled qasbah, qasba, qasaba, or casbah, is a fortress, most commonly the citadel or fortified quarter of a city. It is also equivalent to the term in Spanish (), which is derived from the same ...

fortress was built in 1535 by

Charles I of Spain Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (as Charles I) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy (as Charles II) fr ...

, but was captured by the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks () were a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group in Anatolia. Originally from Central Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded the Ottoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the e ...

in 1574. The remains of Hispano-Turkish fortifications lie inland. The port was a popular destination for summer holidays in the 19th century, and La Goulette's Sicilian town quarter was commonly known as la Petite Sicile (Little Sicily). It was also home to a sizeable Jewish, Italian, and Maltese community.

Population

References

External links