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Mahdia,
Is a Tunisian city outstanding from all points of view !

Mahdia is a Tunisian city, which lies on the Mediterranean coast of the country. Mahdia is also a wonderful place to visite. It has a heavy past that's registred in ancient history: first Phoenician, then Carthaginian and Roman, Mahdia, who has known names as diverse as Jemma, Aphrodisium and Cap Africa, Mahdia will even be the capital of the Fatimid Arabic empire ...

When Oubeid Ellah El Mehdi declared himself Caliph of Kairouan, he immediately met a fierce resistance from the inhabitants. In fact,they denied his legitimacy. Let's remind that the Fatimids used the Berber tribes of Koutama, living in the North Algeria, to defeat the Aglabits and put an end to their rule. This Pagan coalition allied width the Chiite Fatimids was very unpopular between the Sunnite inhabitants of Kairouan. The holy city rebelled against the rising power of the Fatimds.
Realizing how difficult it would be to rule in such conditions, Oubeid Ellah El Mehdi decides to found a new capital.
After a long and accurate prospecting along the coast, El Mehdi chooses a site in the middle of a peninsula. There used to stand centuries ago the ancient Punic town of Zelta, called also Ali Pola. The site was chosen for evident geographic and strategic reasons, but surely also for the climatic considerations. The astrologers will bless this choic; they questioned the stars and decided to found the city in the first day of the Lion sign, symbol of power. El Mehdi, whose name means the elected or the savior, puts the first stone of a city that will bear his name, thus becomming his his own capital. the construction of Mahdia will start in 916 and end in 924 when the Fatimids move officially to their new capital.