Tabarka ( ,
Phoenician
Ṭabarqa,
Thabraca in
Latin, also called
Tbarga by locals) is a coastal town located in north-western
Tunisia, at about , close to the border with
Algeria. It has been famous for its coral fishing, the Coral Festival of
underwater photography and the annual
jazz festival. Tabarka's history is a colorful mosaic of
Phoenician,
Roman,
Arabic and
Turkish civilizations. The town is dominated by an offshore rock on which is built a
Genoese castle. Nationalist leader
Habib Bourguiba, later to become president of post-independence Tunisia, was exiled here by the
French colonial authorities in 1952.