Tunisia's Pearl of the Sahel — a UNESCO-listed medina, Ribat fortress, and 22 km of Mediterranean beach
Sousse is Tunisia's third-largest city and the country's top beach resort destination, where a UNESCO-listed medina with towering Aghlabid walls and a 9th-century ribat fortress sits just minutes from 22 km of pale sand along the Gulf of Hammamet. The old medina's narrow lanes are lined with traditional crafts — glazed ceramics, olive-wood carving, jasmine perfume — and souq stalls selling brik (fried pastry with egg), makrouh, and mechouia salad. Port El Kantaoui, a modern yacht marina 8 km north, anchors the international resort strip.
Founded by the Phoenicians around 9th century BC, Sousse — Hadrumetum to the Romans, Justinianopolis to the Byzantines — was one of the most important cities in Roman North Africa and the home base from which Hannibal launched his campaigns. The Aghlabid dynasty built the surviving ribat and great mosque in the 9th century AD, and the medina's layout has changed little since. Sousse surrendered to Allied forces in May 1943 in one of the pivotal moments of the North African campaign in World War II.