Sidi Bou Saïd UNESCO World Heritage designation

Following its unanimous inclusion during UNESCO’s 48th session in Busan in July 2026, the village of Sidi Bou Saïd officially received its UNESCO World Heritage inscription certificate on September 24, 2026, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Dhia Khaled, Tunisia’s Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, accepted the document from Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Tunisia celebrated the designation with a ceremony on September 25, 2026, at the Ennejma Ezzahra Center for Arab and Mediterranean Music in Tunis, led by Minister of Cultural Affairs Amina Srarfi. The inscription, titled ‘Village de Sidi Bou Saïd: Hub of Cultural and Spiritual Inspiration in the Mediterranean’, recognizes the site’s unique architecture, urban planning, and religious traditions associated with the 12th or 13th-century Sufi master Sidi Bou Saïd.

This achievement follows the inclusion of the Dahar Geopark in the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network earlier in April 2026. With this addition, Tunisia now possesses ten inscribed sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, comprising nine cultural sites and one natural site.