TUNIS—p.15.
Tunis, one of the Barbary states, presenting an extended littorale to the Mediterranean, occupies a peninsula containing 72,000 square miles, and about 200,000 inhabitants. Its eastern parts are fertile, of great natural beauty, and highly cultivated. The articles of commerce here are various, and include gold dust, orchilla weed, ostrich feathers, sponge, and ivory, the greater proportion being conveyed hither by caravan from Timbuctoo. Tunis, the capital, is situated at the head of a noble bay, about ten miles S. W. from the site of the ancient Carthago, contra Italiam, on a plain, overhung on all sides, except the east, by considerable heights, and encircled by lakes and marshes. The streets are irregular and narrow, but the palace of the bey, the chief mosque, and piazza of 3,000 shops, are on a scale of much magnificence. The dwellings of the Europeans are all insulated, and built in a defensive style; the Moorish houses are of only one story, with flat roofs, and cisterns to receive and collect rain water. The citadel, El Gassa, which frowns over the view, is now much neglected, and fallen to decay, but the Goletta, the harbour and citadel, six miles to the west, strongly fortified. After the destruction of Carthage, the Romans built a new city, near the site of modern Tunis; it was colonized by the conquerors, and soon became one of the most important commercial cities of the ancient world.
