Smallest of the North African nations, the Republic of Tunisia is on the central north coast of Africa across the Mediterranean Sea from Sicily. It was a province of the Ottoman Empire until it was occupied by French troops in 1881 and declared a French protectorate. In World War II Allied forces converged on Tunisia from east and west and used it as the springboard for the invasions of Sicily and southern Italy. The country resumed its independence in 1956. Northern Tunisia faces north on the western basin of the Mediterranean while the rest of the country faces east on the eastern basin. Cape Bon (Ra's at-Taib), east of the capital city of Tunis, is where the coast makes a right angle turn from one basin to the other. Tunisia is divided into 24 governates (wilayat, sing. wilayah). This page describes the lighthouses of the northern governates, from the Algerian border through the Cape Bon Peninsula. Arabic is the official language of Tunisia and nearly all residents speak a variety of Arabic called Tounsi. French is widely used in government and media and more than half of the population also speaks French. The Arabic word for a lighthouse is mnarh or manara (منارة). Ra's is a cape, jaza'ir or jazirat is an island, shi'b is a reef, shira' is a bay, and marfa is a harbor. In French phare is the word for a lighthouse, île is an island, cap is a cape, pointe is a promontory or point of land, roche is a rock, récife is a reef, baie is a bay, estuaire is an estuary or inlet, détroit is a strait, rivière is a river, and havre is a harbor. Most of Tunisia's lighthouses were built by the French within the first 20 years of their colonial government. Today the lighthouses are maintained by Tunisian Lighthouse Services, an agency of the Tunisian Navy. It appears that most of them are maintained by resident civilian keepers with the original French lenses still in place. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume E of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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![]() Tabarka Light and Fort de Tabarka, Tabarka, December 2014 Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Citizen59 |
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![]() Qulaybiyah (Kélibia) Light, Qulaybiyah, August 2016 Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Youssef ben Saad |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: South: Southern Tunisia | West: Eastern Algeria
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Posted July 21, 2005. Checked and revised July 3, 2024. Lighthouses: 37. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.