Menzel Bourguiba (Arabic transliteration: 'Manzil Bourgueeba') is a town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 located in extreme north of Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

 (37°9′N 9°47′E), about 60 km away from Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

, in the Bizerte Governorate

Bizerte Governorate

Bizerte Governorate is the northernmost of the 24 governorates of Tunisia. It is situated in northern Tunisia. It covers an area of 3,685 km² and has a population of 524,000 . The capital is Bizerte...

. The town's name translates as "House of Bourguiba", as it was named after the first president in independent Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

, Habib Bourguiba

Habib Bourguiba

Habib Bourguiba was a Tunisian statesman, the Founder and the first President of the Republic of Tunisia from July 25, 1957 until 7 November 1987...

, in 1956.

Economy

Menzel Bourguiba is an important town for economic reasons. Its economy is based mainly around metallurgy

Metallurgy

Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...

. It was founded as a naval installation during the period of French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 rule, because of its strategic location, in between two lakes: The inland Ichkeul Lake

Ichkeul Lake

Ichkeul Lake is a lake in northern Tunisia near the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The lake and wetlands of Ichkeul National Park are an important stopping-over point for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds each year. Among the lake's visitors are ducks, geese, storks, and pink flamingoes...

 on the west, and Bizerte Lake on the east, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 by the Bizerte canal.

Its most important economical activity is the ailing Tunisian state-owned shipyard

Shipyard

Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...

. 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

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 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.

Trivia

During the time of the French colonization of Tunisia (1881-1956), Menzel Bourguiba was named Ferryville which refers to a French minister in this period, Jules Ferry

Jules Ferry

Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion.- Early life :Born in Saint-Dié, in the Vosges département, France, he studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris in 1854, but soon went into politics, contributing to...

.

Sister city

Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

,   Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

External links

• Menzel Bourguiba page at the Global Gazetteer (including location map)
• Ferryville. Menzel Bourguiba (site dedicated to pre-1961 period, in French)
• Old postcards from Menzel Bourguiba
• Bizerta Economic Activities Park