Medina of Sousse
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Through UNESCO, Islam and Fortification
History
The Medina of Sousse is located in the Tunisian Sahel and forms an outstanding archeological site. This was primarily because of the time it was built at the dawn of Islamic civilization, making it one of the earliest constructions after the Islamic conquests in the Maghreb. It was also because of the location of the Medina, a site that required protection against piracy and plunder.
The constructions comprised in its precincts witnessed the early post-conquest civilisations. Its architectural style, from the time of the Aghlabid, is representative of the military coastal constructions of the era, meant to be stout and imposing, so as to ward off foes.
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Climate change
As a coastal heritage site, Medina of Sousse is vulnerable to sea level rise. In 2022, the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report included it in the list of African cultural sites which would be threatened by flooding and coastal erosion by the end of the century, but only if climate change followed RCP 8.5, which is the scenario of high and continually increasing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the warming of over 4 °C., and is no longer considered very likely. The other, more plausible scenarios result in lower warming levels and consequently lower sea level rise: yet, sea levels would continue to increase for about 10,000 years under all of them. Even if the warming is limited to 1.5 °C, global sea level rise is still expected to exceed 2–3 m (7–10 ft) after 2000 years (and higher warming levels will see larger increases by then), consequently exceeding 2100 levels of sea level rise under RCP 8.5 (~0.75 m (2 ft) with a range of 0.5–1 m (2–3 ft)) well before the year 4000. This means that unless effective adaptation efforts such as sea walls can be constructed to deal with the sea level rise, damage and the potential destruction of Medina of Sousse is a matter of time.