The city of Houmt Souk

The city of Houmt Souk is the administrative capital of the Tunisian island of Djerba. It is located about twenty kilometers from Ajim (point of arrival on the island by ferry) and El Kantara (point of arrival on the island by the so-called Roman road).

It is the main town of the municipality of Djerba-Houmt Souk which is both the capital of a delegation and the seat of a municipality with four districts for 75,904 inhabitants (2014) and covering 176.54 km2 without counting the district of Mezraya. Houmt Souk alone has a population of 75,904 inhabitants in 2014. The municipality depends on the governorate of Medenine.

Houmt Souk would have developed on the site of an ancient Roman city called Gerba or Girba, the birthplace of two Roman emperors, Trébonien Galle and his son Volusien; it gave its name to the whole island. The inhabitants of Houmt Souk are called Souaga (plural of Sougui) by the other inhabitants of the island Houmt Souk is located on a plain on the north coast of the island devoid of waterways. The water table is generally brackish, as illustrated by the presence of artesian wells dug during the French protectorate. Among these is that of Bir Erroumi, 767 meters deep, whose water is hot and ferruginous. The city itself is divided into four sectors: Taourit, Boumellel, Essouani and Ejjouamaâ, the other sectors of the municipality being Mellita, Hachène, Fatou, Mezraya, Cedghiane, Erriadh and Oualegh. These sectors are located in the northern (Taourit and Essouani) and southern parts of the city (Boumellel and Ejjouamaâ), with the commercial center overlapping the four sectors. The sea borders the city to the north; the depth of the seabed is shallow off Houmt Souk: you have to go nine kilometers from the coast to reach the curve of – 5 meters. The magnitude of the tides there also reaches 1.30 meters.