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If the subject of waterfronts is well known in the field of refurbishment of sea ports and urban water-sides in the Northern Hemisphere, there are few studies devoted to the countries of the South. This is in spite of the fact that, for the Arab World anyway, the entry on the scene of waterfronts in the era of large urban projects goes back at least to the 1990s (Casablanca, Beirut, Alexandria, Cairo, for example). This article reviews the Tunis lagoon redevelopment, one of the largest urban planning projects put into operation today on the southern side of the Mediterranean. The aim is to define key elements for understanding this. The analysis first deals with a number of challenging steps that were necessary in the concretization of this project (stabilization of the system of actors, negotiation of the ecological input, drawing-up of a viable urban tender). Without being in itself a real model for large cities of the other shore of the Mediterranean, this leading development serves as an ideal case for observing urban planning practices and metropolitan effects concerning land planning and urban identity (new polarizations of the lagoon, accelerated metropolization, symbolic conversion of the waterfront site).