Menzel Bourguiba, Bizerte Governorate, Tunisia

🇹🇳 Menzel Bourguiba, formerly known as Ferryville, is a town located in the extreme north of Tunisia, about 60 km (37 mi) from Tunis, in the Bizerte Governorate.

The town of Menzel Bourguiba is located about sixty km north of Tunis and about twenty km south of Bizerte, capital of the governorate of the same name. It is located in the south-west of the lake of Bizerte, on the narrow strip of land which passes between the lakes of Bizerte and Ichkeul.

An expressway connects the city to the RN8 and the A4 motorway linking Bizerte to Tunis. From Bizerte, the city is accessible from the RN11 which places it halfway between Bizerte and Mateur. In addition, the city is connected to the SNCFT railway network.

Its suburbs consist mainly of the outlying town of Tinja to the west and the Ennejah district a little further south. The Guengla beach, near which several colonial-style houses are still standing, is very popular with the city's residents. The hills of Sidi Yahya and Sidi Abdallah dominate the city.

Economy Menzel Bourguiba is an important town for economic reasons. Its economy is based mainly around metallurgy. It was founded as a naval installation under French rule, because of its strategic location between two lakes: The inland Ichkeul Lake on the west, and Bizerte Lake on the east, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bizerte canal.

Its most important economic activity was the ailing state-owned shipyard. The yard has seen its workforce decline, after the high level of activity in the 1970s and 1980s, when Tunisia had a larger merchant fleet and when the Soviet Union used Menzel Bourguiba to drydock its ships. At that time, the yard employed over 1,300 people. It was bought by the French ship repair company, Compagnie Marseille Réparation in 2004 and has been renamed to CMR Tunisia Ship Repairs.