Le Kef is, since ancient times, the main city of Upper Tell and the Tunisian northwest of which it is, until recently, the political, the most important religious center and the strong dominant position.Formerly called Colonia Iulia Nova Veneria Cirta Sicca , is the subject of discussion among historians as a potential location of the capital of Numidia mentioned by Sallust in his Bellum Jugurthum, the other assumption is the city of Constantine in Algeria.
In 688, the city experienced a first raid of the Arab armies.

In 1600, a first fort was built to house from 1637 a permanent garrison (oujaq); the device is completed by the fortified walls built by Ali Pasha to I 1739-174012. This does not preclude the taking and looting of the city by Algerians in 1756, nor the French military occupation from 1881. For the Bey's decree of July 8, 1884, Le Kef is municipal, one the first in the country.