Ariana

History

The name of the city is not an Arab term . It seems in makes crystallize a memory of the occupation vandal and would be to bring closer to the Latin ariani (ariens). Authors of the beginning of the 16th century indicate that this locality is then filled with ancient vestiges dating from the Goths and of the Vandales. According to a legend, the city would bear the girl's name of a Roman general with whom it would have built a palate in the surroundings.

It is in the surroundings of Ariana that was the famous park of Abou Fihr with its artificial thickets and its lakes with the use of the princesses Hafsides, the Tunisian Poète S having sung to them (a long time pink of the gardens of Ariana. Another memory of the time hafside is the Zaouïa of Sidi Ammar, died of disease as a combatant the cross unloaded in Carthage in 1270.

The origins of the city go back to the Zirides. The sovereign hafside Abû “Abd Allah Muhammad Al-Mustansir makes of Ariana the residence of the Jewish Aristocratie and Moslem Andalusian taken refuge in Tunisia at the 13th century. Moreover, the parity between Jews and Moslems are almost touched there in 1946. It is also the place where saw and is canonized Sidi Mahrez (patron saint of Tunis). The municipality is instituted on July 1st 1908.

Today, very few things remain of the “laughing gardens giving to fruits quantity” depicted by Leon the African or of the Palais and residences of the XVIII {{E}} and XIX {{E}} centuries to the varied influences (Italianists, Arabists or rebirth), oil mills, schools and other witnesses of a prestigious history. Nothing reveals the last rich person of the city if it is not some palm tree S centenaries behind of high nettings. The wooded slopes and the peaceful Jardin S were invaded by Tunis and Ariana becomes the receptacle of the emigration remainder of the country: a population geared down by 20 in 40 years, reaching nearly 300.000 inhabitants, in prey with a fury of fast construction combining Concrete and Glass tinted. Ariana preserve however some palates which attest of its glorious past:

the Palate Ben Ayed (sheltering the town hall since 1983)
the Palate Baccouche (current National center of dance)

After the demolition, these last years, palates Caïd Essebsi and Mestiri and Baccouche oil mill, it is today the Palais Zaouche, which however occupies a broad piece on the main axis connecting Ariana to Tunis, which is on the point of following the same way.

Geography

The city, whose surface covers 18.000 Hectare S, currently gathers 7 districts for 160.000 inhabitants. It is located in the middle of a vast plain bordered by the beaches of Raoued and Gammarth, by the town of Carthage and the hill of Sidi Bou Saïd.

Economy

Ariana owes its fame with its agricultural rise and its production of Fleur S (pinks mainly).

The Garden of the Rose, located in the park Bir Belhassen, covers a few 3000 m ² and shelters 16.000 rose trees and cuttings of which 90% belong to the variety known as pink of Ariana . This variety is introduced in 1637 by the Andalusians. The garden is prolonged by the Gallery of the Rose who develops the historical aspects, natural and cultural of this flower.

Technopolis of El Ghazala

Ariana shelters the technopolis El Ghazala. It joins together on the same site of the schools for the formation of Engineer S and technicians, research centres and of development, a seedbed of companies as well as companies among which Alcatel and STMicroelectronics. The University of the communications of Tunis and the Institute of higher learning of the technological studies in communications of Tunis train engineers and technicians. The research activity and development are there expanding within the schools and in the research and study Center of telecommunications. Alcatel and its development center of software, integrated into the research center and of development of Marcoussis, envisage the opening of a “platform of incubation” intended for the development of the uses and new applications in the sector of information the Technologies and the communication. Lastly, the technopolis accommodates the Tunisian Agence of Internet like several companies of the sector of the software, telecommunications or Internet such as Ericsson.

Sports

Although the Football remains the favorite sport of the inhabitants, the Handball is the sport in which Ariana marked the national championship with the club omnisport of the Sports association of Ariana which is regarded as a fish pond of young talents and future Tunisian professional handballers .

External bonds

Official site of the municipality of Ariana
Presentation of Ariana on the site of the town of Fatty
Quoted of sciences of Tunis

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