Editing Tunis (section)

====Walls and gates====
{{City gates of Tunis|state=collapsed}}
[[File:Tunis remparts portes.jpg|thumb|Walls and gates of the city in 1888]]
From the early days of its founding, Tunis has been considered an important military base. The Arab geographer El Yacoubi has written that in the 9th century Tunis was surrounded by a wall of brick and clay except for the side of the sea where it was stone.<ref>{{harvp|Messikh|2000|p=41}}</ref>  Bab El-Jazeera, perhaps the oldest gate of the south wall, opened onto the southern road. Bab Cartagena gave access to Carthage, important for bringing in construction materials needed for the city. Bab Souika (initially known as Bab El Saqqayin) had a strategic role to keep the roads to [[Bizerte]], [[Béja]] and [[Le Kef]]. Bab Menara (initially known as Bab El Artha) opened onto the medina and onto the suburb of El Haoua. As for El Bab Bhar, it allowed access to some [[Caravanserai|funduq]]s where Christian merchants lived in Tunis.

With the development of the capital under the reign of the [[Hafsids]], two emerging suburbs grew outside the walls; Bab El Jazira in the south and Bab Souika to the north. In the early 14th century, Hafsid Darba Abû al-Muhammad al-Mustansir Lihyânî ordered the construction of a second chamber including the Medina and two suburbs outside.<ref>{{harvp|Messikh|2000|p=46}}</ref> Six new gates were built including Bab El Khadra, Bab Saadoun, Bab El Allouj (initially called Bab Er-Rehiba), Khalid or Bab Bab Sidi Abdallah Cherif, Bab El Fellah and Bab Alioua. In the Ottoman period, four new gates were established: Bab Laassal, Bab Sidi Abdesselam, Bab El Bab Gorjani, and Sidi Kacem. The city retains some of these gates including Bab El Khadra, Bab El Bhar, and Bab Jedid but some of the earlier ones have long disappeared.