The northernmost capital city in Africa is Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Tunis lies in the country’s northeastern corner near the Mediterranean Sea, farther north than the capitals of Libya, Algeria, and Morocco.
Tunis has been a major settlement for centuries because of its position near the Gulf of Tunis and the ancient city of Carthage. The medina, or old city, developed as a dense center of mosques, markets, schools, and workshops. Tunis became the capital of modern Tunisia and remains the country’s principal political, commercial, and cultural center.
A useful distinction is that Tunis is the northernmost African national capital, not the northernmost point or city on the continent. Tunisia’s northern coastline reaches farther north than the capital, and places such as Bizerte lie north of Tunis. Tripoli is also a Mediterranean capital, but it is substantially farther south; Rabat and Algiers are south of Tunis as well.