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Sicca Veneria

El Kef
A mosque in El Kef
A mosque in El Kef
El Kef is located in Tunisia
El Kef
El Kef
Location in Tunisia
Coordinates: 36°10′56″N 8°42′53″E / 36.18222°N 8.71472°E / 36.18222; 8.71472Coordinates: 36°10′56″N 8°42′53″E / 36.18222°N 8.71472°E / 36.18222; 8.71472
Country Tunisia Tunisia
Governorate Kef Governorate
Elevation 2,560 ft (780 m)
Population (2014)
 • Total 73,706
Time zone CET (UTC1)
Postal code 7100
Website www.commune-elkef.gov.tn

El Kef (Arabic: الكاف‎‎ About this sound il-kāf), also known as Le Kef, is a city in northwestern Tunisia. It serves as the capital of the Kef Governorate.

El Kef is situated 175 kilometres (109 mi) to the west of Tunis and some 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of the border between Algeria and Tunisia. It has a population of 45,191 (2004 census). The old town is built on the cliff face of the table-top Jebel Dyr mountain. El Kef was the provisional capital of Tunisia during World War II. It was the command centre of the Front de Libération Nationale during the Algerian War of Independence against the French in the 1950s.

The Sidi Bou Makhlouf Mausoleum entombs the patron saint of the city.

The highest-elevated city of Tunisia, at 780 metres (2,560 ft), its metropolitan area reaches 2,500 hectares (6,200 acres) of which 45 hectares (110 acres) lie within the interior of the old walled Medina quarter.

The municipality of El Kef is shared between two national delegates, East Kef and West Kef, which correspond to the two municipal boroughs.

First known by the name of Sicca during the Carthaginian era, then later Sicca Veneria during the rise of Roman domination, the city has carried numerous names throughout its history: Colonia Julia Cirta, Cirta Nova, Sikka Beneria, Shaqbanariya and finally El Kef since the 16th century.


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