BAJAH

also spelled Bja, town, northern Tunisia. The town lies in the hills on the northern edge of the Majardah (Medjerda) Valley and is built on the site of ancient Vacca (or Vaga)a Punic town and Roman colony. An important agricultural market since the 1st century BC, it was conquered by the Vandals and rebuilt in part by Justinian in the 6th century AD. The old section of Bajah lies on the flank of a steep hill and is still partly encircled by Byzantine walls. The town was made an administrative and military centre by the Turks in the 16th century. Bajah has historically been the centre of the Majardah Valley wheat-growing region, and an 11th-century Arab geographer thus described the town as the granary of Tunisia. In addition to flour milling, the town has sugar refineries and is the site of an agricultural research station. It is linked by road and rail with Tunis, 62 miles (100 km) east. The surrounding area encompasses the wet coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea southeastward across the cork- and oak-covered highlands to the fertile Majardah Valley. It is an important wheat-growing and livestock-raising region and includes the towns of Nafzah, centre of the Nafzah plain, and Majaz al-Bab, a grain market on the site of ancient Membressa. Pop. (1984) commune, 46,708.