Gafsa

This article describes the Tunisian city. For the governorate of the same name, see Gafsa governorate .

Gafsa
Gafsa - town view
administration
Country	Tunisia
Governorate	Gafsa
Website	Gafsa
Demographics
population	84,676 pop (2004)
geography
height	297  m
Gafsa
Coordinates	34 ° 25 '  N , 8 ° 47'  E Coordinates: 34 ° 25 '  N , 8 ° 47'  E

Gafsa - courtyard of the great mosque

Gafsa ( Arabic قفصة, DMG Qafṣa ) is a city in the center of Tunisia with around 85,000 inhabitants. The capital of the governorate of the same name is an important traffic junction between the north and south of the country.

location

Gafsa is located north of the salt lake Chott el Djerid between the Djebel Bou Ramli in the northwest and the Djebel Orbata in the east at an altitude of about 300 meters above sea level. d. M. The distance to Tunis is approx. 350 km (driving distance) in a northeasterly direction.

history

Gafsa is the place of the prehistoric site Capsa , which gave the epipalaeolithic culture of Capsien its name, just like the titular diocese of Capsa . The more than 15,000 years of settlement history of this region are evidence of bone finds and other traces of human settlement.

In ancient times , the Romans founded Capsa in the 2nd century BC. BC , the city developed into a Municipium and later a Colonia . In 540 the Byzantines protected it by building a city wall and named it Justiniana . Oqba Ibn Nafi conquered the city in 688 but met strong resistance as the Berbers refused to convert to Islam for a long time . Latin was still spoken in Gafsa in the 12th century . In 1551 the city was besieged by the privateer Dragut , the successor of Khair ad-Din Barbarossa . It held up, but had to capitulate a few years later (1556).

During the Second World War , the city was bombed several times by Germans in 1942 and 1943 , and part of the Kasbah was also destroyed (→  Tunisia campaign ).

Center of the labor movement

Gafsa is considered a center of the labor movement . There were repeated strikes and protest movements here in the 20th and early 21st centuries . In March 1937, a miners' strike was bloodily suppressed, killing 17 miners. In 1978 there was a large strike movement. In 1980 guerrillas sent by Gaddafi tried to attack and take the city. However, they were poorly trained and were quickly chased away by the Tunisian military with the support of the population.

In 2008, a revolt-like general strike movement developed in the region, which resulted in occupations of company property and trade union headquarters. It was directed against social injustice, a lack of prospects and environmental degradation. The uprising was suppressed by force. These events are considered by the Tunisian opposition movement to be the seeds of the revolution in Tunisia in 2010/2011 .

economy

Gafsa was able to develop further thanks to the mining of phosphates , whose deposits, discovered in 1886, are one of the most important in the world. The mines extract more than 6.5 million tons of phosphates annually and transport them by rail towards the port of Sfax . Due to the enormous water consumption of the phosphate works, there are always water bottlenecks for the population.

In addition, Gafsa has specialized in carpet and wallpaper production. However, unemployment is very high there and many young people see little prospects for their lives there. That is why many move to the north of Tunisia.

Attractions

• The Roman baths ( Piscines romaines ) continued to be used in the Byzantine and Islamic periods.
• The main attraction is the Great Mosque from the 14th century on the outskirts, which was thoroughly restored in the 1960s; in many of the approximately 120 columns and capitals of the inner courtyard ( sahn ) and the actual prayer room, antique parts were reused as spoilers .
• The Kasbah fortress dates back to 1434; however, it was badly damaged in the explosion of an ammunition depot in 1943.

Web links

Commons : Gafsa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Climate table

Gafsa
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     23   15th 4th     17th   17th 5     24   20th 8th     12   24 11     13   29 15th     9   34 19th     1   37 21st     8th   36 22nd     23   32 19th     21st   26th 14th     17th   20th 8th     27   15th 5 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: wetterkontor.de

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Gafsa Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 14.7 17.0 19.7 23.6 28.7 33.7 36.8 36.2 31.6 25.7 19.8 15.4 O 25.3 Min. Temperature (° C) 4.1 5.4 7.7 10.7 14.8 18.7 21.3 21.5 18.8 14.0 8.4 4.7 O 12.5 Precipitation ( mm ) 23 17th 24 12 13 9 1 8th 23 21st 17th 27 Σ 195 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 6.6 7.5 7.9 8.9 9.9 10.8 11.5 10.9 9.4 8.2 7.4 6.7 O 8.8 Rainy days ( d ) 3 2 3 2 2 1 0 1 2 3 2 2 Σ 23 Humidity ( % ) 65 61 58 55 52 47 43 48 55 61 65 68 O 56.5 Source: wetterkontor.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Institut National de la Statistique - Tunisie: Census 2004 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . ( french ) 
2. ↑ ^{a b} taz.de of July 11, 2008 footnote 1
3. ↑ Andreas Vrabl: Libya: A Third World - Revolution in Transition , thesis, Vienna 2008, p 34
4. ↑ taz.de of July 11, 2008
5. ↑ Rote-Fahne-News (online news magazine of the MLPD) of April 16, 2011 ( Memento of the original of February 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ Work future online from January 23, 2011
7. ↑ afrika.info, October 1, 2012