Kairouan Governorate
Kairouan shows secondary succession after 1057 destruction: UNESCO World Heritage city (1988) with 600,803 residents, 167 industrial companies, and ongoing vulnerability exposed by 2023 wall collapse.
Kairouan Governorate demonstrates ecological succession in civilizational form—founded in 670 AD, it flourished as the Maghreb's principal holy city and one of Islam's great centers of scholarship from the 9th to 11th centuries, only to collapse catastrophically when the Banu Hilal tribes destroyed it in 1057. Today's 600,803 residents (2024 census) inhabit the archaeological remains of former greatness: a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988 featuring the Great Mosque with its marble and porphyry columns and the 9th-century Mosque of the Three Gates. The modern economy represents secondary succession—167 industrial companies providing 10,000+ jobs, with 91 agri-food units processing local vegetables, olives, and fruits. A university established in 2004 and heritage tourism revenues gradually rebuild the economic ecosystem, though the December 2023 wall collapse (killing three masons) exposed ongoing vulnerability. UNESCO missions in May 2024 and January 2025 documented how socio-economic pressures, unsuitable building materials, and absent management plans continue degrading the authentic urban fabric. Kairouan functions like a coral reef after bleaching—the skeletal structure of past magnificence remains, slowly being recolonized by new life forms while climate and human stressors threaten full recovery.