The Arabic name ( حامة ) comes from the word for "hot water" ( الماء الحام ), an reference to the thermal springs that are widespread in the region.

In ancient times the Matmata inhabited the plateaus of Mindas, around Ouancherich (current Ouarsenis), and Mount Guezoul Tiaret and the great interior plains of Tunisia today.

"[1]The English explorer Dr. Thomas Shaw who, as early as 1743, spoke of the city in these terms: "The city of El Hamma is four leagues west of Gabes: the Tunisians have a small fort and a garrison because it is one of their border places [...] There are several baths, which each have a roof covered with straw, and in their basins, which are about twelve feet square and four deep, there is, for the convenience of those who bathe, stone benches a little to below the surface of the water.

Between Dabdaba and El Kasr once stretched a town called Aqua Tacapitanae, because it depended on Tacape, from which it was separated by an interval of 18 Roman miles.

On 29 March 1943, New Zealand and British forced defeated the Germans at the Battle of the Mareth Line and entered El Hamma.

The completion of several deep bore holes to supply water to the Gabès cement plant in the 1980s and 1990s, saw a drying up of several hot springs including Aïn Echoffa, and a degradation of the palm grove farms.

[5] Agriculture has long been the main economic sector of activity in Hammah, the city's economy has diversified in recent years and the industry employs more than a third of the towns assets.