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 1,056,247 (2014 ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. Situated between

La Goulette La Goulette (, it, La Goletta), 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 Tūnis and the Gulf of Tunis. The port, located 12km east of Tunis, is th ...

, the port of

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, and

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, 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 classi ...

, 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 ...

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 i ...

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 set of dialects of Maghrebi Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its over 11 million speakers aeb, translit=Tounsi/Tounsiy, label=as, تونسي , "Tunisian" or "Everyday Language" to distingu ...

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 Ahmed I ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد باشا باي), born 2 December 1805 in TunisIbn 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, ...

Bey of Tunis Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

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 (), also known as Kingdom of Tunis ( ar, المملكة التونسية) was a largely autonomous beylik of the Ottoman Empire located in present-day Tunisia. It was ruled by the Husainid dynasty from 1705 until the abolit ...

. 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 an Islamic 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

References

External links

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

See also

References

External links