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Sousse " The Pearl of the Sahel ", is located on the central eastern coast at 140 km south of Tunis. Its climate is tempered and semi continental. It had been a capital and a port terminal since antiquity for at least twenty six centuries, with only the name changing: Hadrumetum during the Roman era, Hunericopolis under the Vandals, Justianapolis for the Byzantines and finally Sousse during the Arabs era.
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Founded during the 9th Century B.C. by the Phoenicians in order to serve as a transit base for their commercial vessels in the Western Mediterranean region, Sousse witnessed during the Roman period a remarkable growth and represented then one of the most famous cities in Africa. No major events marked the Vandal or Byzantine eras, as well as during the first Islamic period. Sousse, made up of few hamlets, was living under the protection of its Ribat, a kinf of small port serving as a control and refuge station for its inhabitants. During the 2nd, 3rd Hegira/4th century A.C. the Aghlabides chose Sousse to serve as a naval base and Ziyadat-Allah 1st equipped it in 205 H./821 A.C. with a Casbah surrounding the Ribat and the army's arsenal. The whole was shielded by means of a rampart.
A new Casbah was built by Abou Abbas in 229 H / 844 A.C, then fifteen years later, Abou Ibrahim Ahmad surrounded the city with a dressed stones wall. This provided Sousse with a relative peace favoring its development. Moving from the status of a military base, it became one of the biggest cities in Ifriqiya, and served as the maritime mouth of Kairouan.
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The problem of its dinking water supply was resolved through the development and restoration of the Sofra, an ancient Roman tank. A channel system conveys water from neighboring regions to inside the great walls. The foundation of Mahdia by the Fatimide Caliph Al Mahdi in 333 H / 945 A.C. relegated it to the second plan. During the 7th/8th centuries, the city was taken care of by the Hafsides who equipped it with several monuments. But when in the 10th H/14th centuries, Moulay Hassan called upon the Spanish to help him restore his throne, Sousse rose up against invaders; two punitive expeditions seriously damaged the city.
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