Menzel Bourguiba

Menzel Bourguiba
Town

Ferry in 1902
Menzel Bourguiba

Location in Tunisia

Coordinates: 37°9′N 9°47′E / 37.150°N 9.783°E / 37.150; 9.783Coordinates: 37°9′N 9°47′E / 37.150°N 9.783°E / 37.150; 9.783
Country  Tunisia
Governorate Bizerte Governorate
Population (2014)
  Total 61,919
Time zone CET (UTC+1)

Menzel Bourguiba (Arabic: منزل بورقيبة, translit. Manzil Burgueeba, lit. 'House of Bourguiba'), formerly known as Ferryville, is a town located in the extreme north of Tunisia, about 60 km from Tunis, in the Bizerte Governorate.

Toponymy

The town's name translates as "House of Bourguiba", as it was named after the first president in independent Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, in 1956. During the time of the French colonization of Tunisia (1881–1956), Menzel Bourguiba was named Ferryville referring to contemporary French minister Jules Ferry.

Economy

Menzel Bourguiba is an important town for economic reasons. Its economy is based mainly around metallurgy. It was founded as a naval installation during the period of French rule, because of its strategic location, in between two lakes: The inland Ichkeul Lake on the west, and Bizerte Lake on the east, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bizerte canal.

Its most important economic activity is the ailing Tunisian state-owned shipyard. The yard has seen its workforce decline, after the high level of activity in the 1970s and 1980s, when Tunisia had a larger merchant fleet and when the Soviet Union used Menzel Bourguiba to drydock its ships. At that time, the yard employed over 1,300 people. It has recently been bought by a French ship repair company, Compagnie Marseille Réparation.[1]

Sister city

Stuttgart, Germany Germany.[2]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 2/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.