Gabès

Gabes is the capital of Gabes Governorate and the sixth-largest city in Tunisia, situated on the Mediterranean coast about 327 kilometers southeast of Tunis, with a population of 167,863 recorded in the 2014 census. Known to the Carthaginians as Tacapae and later held by Rome, the city was revived after the seventh-century Arab conquest by a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and grew substantially under French administration between 1881 and 1955, when it gained railways and port infrastructure; during the Second World War it served as headquarters for the German Afrika Korps until its recapture in 1943. Gabes functions today as a commercial hub and oasis whose economy spans fishing, agriculture, textiles, cement, brick manufacturing and petrochemicals.