Tunisia, A Gem In North Africa Quiz

Answer: False

It was the other way around. The name originated from the Berber word Tns(transcribed) meaning "encampment". The French then called the city "Tunisie" which, with a Latin prefix "ia" became Tunisia, the country.

Before being given a country name, the territory was known as "Ifriqiya" which was transcribed into the contemporary name for the continent.

Tunis is a modern city of over a million people, situated on the Lake of Tunis which is connected to the Gulf of Tunis on the Mediterranean Sea. Tunis is located in the north east of the country immediately south of the ancient city of Carthage.

Answer: Romans

The Berbers, a nomadic people, occupied the area known as Tunisia today. The Phoenicians arrived in the 12th century BC and settled on the coast. Dido from Tiye (now Lebanon) built Carthage in the ninth century BC but the incoming Carthage citizens brought their culture from the Phoenicians with them. Carthage went to war with city-states such as Sicily as early as 500BC and became the dominant civilisation in the western Mediterranean. The Punic Wars started in Rome. The Romans retaliated to the Hannibal-led second Punic War on Rome by sacking Carthage and nearby Tunis. After Carthage was conquered by Rome, the area became an important granary and was dominated by Latin culture and oversight.

[The photo depicts the Roman amphitheatre in El Djem, built during 3rd century AD. The strikingly similar Roman amphitheatre was built the first century AD].

Answer: French

By the eighth century, Arab Muslims had conquered the region and established the first Islamic city in North Africa - Kairouan. Tunisia flourished under this rule. The Normans of Sicily and the Almohads subsequently conquered Tunisia in the 1200-1300s, then the Ottomans came in 1532. Tunisia lost territory to the east (Tripoli) and the west (Constantine). Tunisia became bankrupt in 1869.

The French invaded through Algeria to the west in 1881 and formed a protectorate. Apart from a few months in 1942-3 when Tunisia was occupied by Nazi Germany, the French remained in control until 1956, when the de-colonisation of Africa started and Tunisia declared itself independent.

Answer: False

Tunisia is an Islamic State. However, this has nothing to do with the flag. The flag differs from the Turkish flag by Tunisia having a white disc with the crescent and star in red rather than white.
The red field is recognition of the Ottoman empire. The official flag explanation states that the red colour represents the "blood of martyrs killed during the Turkish conquest of Tunisia in 1574" (However the Tunisians demanded the Ottomans liberate them from Spanish invaders). Another theory, from Arabic groups, is that the "colour red is a symbol of resistance against Turkish supremacy".
The crescent and star featured on many Tunisian buildings in the Punic state of Carthage. (The crescent is supposed to bring good luck). They subsequently appeared on the Ottoman flag and since then have been adopted as symbols of Islam. The white disc represents the sun which also featured on Punic War period artefacts.

Answer: Arabic

"Tunisians identify themselves as Arab, they are predominantly genetically descended from Berber groups, with some Phoenician/Punic and Arab input" according to the American Journal of Human Genetics. However just as over 99% of Tunisians are Sunni Muslims, over 99% speak Arabic. There is a "local dialect" called Tunisian Arabic. This dialect contains words borrowed from other languages from previous cultures that have resided in Tunisia including Turkish, Italian, and French. This dialect is called Danja. It is the language of daily dialogue within the family. Early in the school curriculum, there is a change and Literary Arabic is taught which is more formal and has prescribed standards.

French is still spoken by over half of the population but it is in declining in numbers. In the far south there is a small number of people who only speak Berber languages.

Answer: Algeria and Libya

From the depicted map, it can be seen that Tunisia only has two national boundaries. These are Algeria to the west and south-west and Libya to the south-east. (Chad is south of Libya and Morocco is west of Algeria). The Mediterranean sea is to the east and the north-west.

Tunisia is small in size compared with other north African neighbours as land was seized by them during the Ottoman regime.

Answer: Yes

While the coastal areas have a warm Mediterranean climate, there is a sharp decrease in rainfall as you move south. The southern part of Tunisia touches the Sahara Desert but the bottom three quarters of the country has a warm desert climate. In the west near the mountains, there is a cold semi-arid climate (Snow in winter at higher elevations) and then to the north of this, before the coastal area, is a thin band of a warm semi-arid climate. The northern quarter enjoys a Mediterranean climate with warm summers and cool wet winters. This latter band, a coastal plain called the Sahei, is a fertile plain and is one of the premier olive growing regions in the world.

[The photo hints of a climate map showing hot to cold regions].

Answer: Sicily (Italy)

The islands of Sicily, Malta and Sardinia are close by, with Corsica being north of Sardinia. All are islands in the Mediterranean Sea. While Tunisia contains the northernmost tip of the African continent and Gibraltar represents the Southern tip of the European mainland, they are some distance apart, indeed the width of Algeria separate them, and Gibraltar is very close to Morocco with only a 12 km wide strait between them.

There has been a project to build a bridge and tunnel between Tunisia, across the strait of Sicily to the island of Sicily on the table for many years. The distance between the coastlines is 155 kilometres (96 mi). The project plan depicts five tunnels dug out between four intermediate artificial islands which will be constructed with the excavations. The huge project has never been funded.

Answer: Atlas Mountains

The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb region of Africa that cover around 2,500 km (1,600 mi) from Morocco in the southwest, through Algeria to Tunisia in the north-east. The range's highest peak is Toubkal, (4,167 metres or 13,671 ft) in southwestern Morocco.

The range is considerably lower in Tunisia. The far eastern portion of this range in Tunisia is called the the Aures Mountains. There are few rivers in Tunisia and most of the major ones with permanent water flow originally from the Atlas mountains and move generally east and northward to the coast.

Answer: Couscous

Couscous is a north African dish of small (3mm diameter) steamed balls of crushed durum wheat semolina. It is complex and labour intensive to make. It is thought to have originated with the Berbers as early as 200BC though this is unclear. Millet was used originally but sometime in the early 20th Century, there was a change to durum wheat.
In Tunisia, the couscous is steamed in a double boiler with protein and vegetables cooked in the lower half infusing the couscous. The couscous is served first on a plate then the vegetables then a protein. A thin sauce may be added.
Protein is usually fish (close to the coast) lamb or goat with camel occasionally seen in the southern Berber communities. Game such as rabbit and pigeons are common in the mountain areas.
There is a large Jewish community on the island of Djerb so Kosher foods tend to dominate there.
Tunisia is differentiated from other North African cuisine by extensive use of fiery spices.