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Monastir's historic bastion, Ribat of Monastir, is a symbolic icon of a city that once served as a springboard for Arab Muslims who conquered North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Located in the central eastern part of Tunisia, on the Mediterranean coast, Monastir is only 160 km away from the Capital Tunis.

Monastir played host to the first Islamic Arab city in Africa which ruled at that time parts of present-day Tunis and Algeria. By the year 665, Monastir served as an outpost to defend the city of Kairouan, once a capital of Muslim Africa. The Ribat of Monastir, a bastion of acclaimed architecture, was built in 796 A.C. by Herthouma Ben el-Aien, governor of the Abbasid Caliph Haroun al-Rachid

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Monastir was founded on the ruins of the Punic_Roman city of Ruspina .
The city feautures a well_preserved ribat that was uses to scan the sea for hostile and as a denfence against the attacks of the Byzantine fleet_several Ulema , came to stay in the ribat for contemplation , the ribat built in 796 AD , also ribat was one of the fliming locations for both the Miniseries Jesus of Nazareth and Monty Python's life of brian .