Soliman, Tunisia ( Tunsi: Slimène 'Slee-men'' is a town and commune in the

Nabeul Governorate Nabeul Governorate ( ' Tunisian pronunciation: ; ) is one of the 24 governorates of Tunisia. It is situated in north-eastern Tunisia. It covers an area of 2,788 km2 and has a population of 863,172 (2024 census). The capital is Nabeul. ...

, in the north-eastern part of

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 ...

. As of 2017, it had a population of 57,060.Recensement de 2004 (Institut national de la statistique)
Located in the heart of a fertile plain, it is a marketing centre for agricultural products from the surrounding countryside. In addition, it is home to an important industrial area with the presence of mechanical engineering plants, including equipment manufacturers for the automotive industry. Caught up in urbanization, it is gradually being transformed into a suburb 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 ...

. A beach extends five kilometers to the northwest, at the bottom of 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 ...

, offering a panoramic view. Soliman was the site of a deadly shootout between Tunisian security forces and individuals presumed to be "Islamist terrorists" on January 3, 2007. It's also the birthplase of the populair Tunisian artist Balti

History

The city owes its development, from the sixteenth century, to the settlement of Turkish soldiers from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

which had just established its hold on

(its name comes from the surname of a Turk who owned a vast agricultural estate) and above all, in the seventeenth century, to the arrival of Morisco populations driven out of Andalusia. As in several other Tunisian cities of Cap Bon (Nabeul, Grombalia, Turki (Tunisia), Turki, etc.), the Medjerda Valley (Testour, Majaz al Bab, Kalâat el-Andalous, etc.) and the Bizerte Governorate, Bizerte region (Metline, El Alia, Ras Jebel, Raf Raf,

Ghar el-Melh Ghar el-Melh (, ''Ghar al-Milh'', "Salt Grotto"), the classical Rusucmona and CastraDelia and colonial is a town and former port on the southern side of Cape Farina in Bizerte Governorate, Tunisia. History Phoenician colony The Phoenician set ...

and Menzel Jemil), Soliman has preserved traces of this Andalusian contribution, mainly visible in the urban planning and building architecture. Thus, the historic centre of the city has a network of narrow streets intersecting perpendicularly and the housing is made up of small terraced houses, organised around a patio often shaded by a tree, with a space for accommodation (''dar'') separated from a service area (''douira'') and a stable (''makhzen'')). The wealthiest families owned an extra floor. The buildings are painted white, the doors are made of elaborately painted wood and the houses sometimes have green tile roofs. In the city centre, two mosques bear witness to this dual influence, one of the Maliki rite that can be seen by its

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

built on a square base, and the other of the Hanafi rite (that of the Turks) with an octagonal base.

References

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

History

See also

References