Recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1980.

This former summer resort village has become a year-round residential area of Tunis. Built on a hill above a magnificent cliff and the Bay of Carthage, the natural beauty of the site enhances the interest of the town. The buildings are a mix of Mauresque and some Italianate elements organised contiguously along a tangled pattern of streets surrounding the central mosque and suq. The coming of mass tourism brought increasing pollution and traffic congestion. Moreover, the latter posed a serious threat to the geological stability of the cliff. A management plan prepared by the District of Tunis, enacted in 1978, sets directions for the control of development and land use. The town received a citation from the jury "for the efforts over a long period of time by a community toward the conservation of their village. Based on true understanding of the architectural values of the village, legislation has been enacted controlling maintenance, expansion and vehicular circulation, and the sense of place has been kept. Sidi Bou Saïd has retained not only the picturesque quality of a village, but its very essence."

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture