The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014),[citation needed] and a Mediterranean port.

The peace returned to the country was only disturbed by rare episodes, the most lasting of which began with the price of Sfax by the dissident brothers, Ahmed and Abdelmalèk ben Makki.

In 1776, the southern suburb of the city, the Frankish quarter, was built, reserved for Jews and Christians, a major place of maritime trade, but which was also to serve as a buffer against sea attacks, which were still to be feared.

In 1876, the telegraph clerk made a plan of the city and told us about a signal tower built a century earlier and of which we have lost track.

[3] When the Bey of Tunis signed the Bardo Treaty, in 1881, making Tunisia a protectorate, an insurrection broke out in Sfax.

Six ironclads were dispatched from Toulon (Colbert, Friedland, Marengo, Trident, Revanche, Surveillante) to join the French Navy ships in Tunisian waters.

In Sfax, three ironclads from the Division of the Levant were already present (Alma, Reine Blanche, La Galissonnière), together with four cannon boats.

Owing to its sheltered location relative to Mediterranean Sea winter storms, Sfax receives half the rainfall of Tunis and less even than the major cities of Libya (Tripoli and Benghazi).

The topography of the governorate of Sfax tilts regularly from the west to the coast and local presents small hills and mountain ranges in the form of elongated draâs.

Most of the study site extends over wide plains not exceeding the 150 m above sea level, including a low coastal strip about 15 km wide and having an average altitude of 20 m.[15] The monotonous character, low and not very rugged of the topography largely determined the characteristics hydrographic in the governorate of Sfax.

The hills and small mountain ranges of the center-west present a hydrographic hairline dense and relatively deep compared to the coastal strip.

It was used for different purposes throughout history, first, a control tower built by the Aghlabids on the coast, then the seat of the municipal government, and then the main army barracks.

[26] Sfax concentrates the main educational institutions of the south of the Sahel: The University of Sfax includes: The North American Private University[36] was founded in 2012 and brings together 3 institutes: The city had a municipal theater between 1903 and 1942 built by the architect Raphaël Guy according to a neo-Moorish architecture, in line with the seat of the municipality and the Ramdanetru palace.

It was bombarded during campaign of Tunisia which nevertheless targeted the commercial port much further south of the city and during which the Frankish quarter was completely razed.

Another component of the Sfaxian economy is the exploitation of petroleum: the Miskar natural gas field covers a total area of 352 km2 and has a capacity of 22.7 billion m³.

Statistics of the sfaxian economy by sectors and field :[40] The A1 motorway connects Sfax with Tunis and also with Gabès that was inaugurated in 2017.

[41] A narrow-gauge railway system of SNCFT offers passenger services to Tunis and delivers phosphates and iron ore for export.