Chaouach is known for its extensive haouanet ( حانوت ). These tombs are presumably of Numidian origin, used until the time of the Roman presence in North Africa.
There was from 330 BC to AD 640 a Roman settlement at Chaouach was called Suas.[1] Suas was a civitas of the Roman province of Africa Proconsolare, though larger than its near neighbor Toukabeur.
During the Tunisian Campaign of World War II, the town was an important strategic site being on the heights overlooking the Medjerda River valley with several large towns to the south. The town was taken in April 1943, by the British Army's, Lancashire Fusiliers and the Queen's Own East Surrey Regiment.[2][3]
General Sir Kenneth Anderson wrote of Chaouch at this time,
This mountain land is a vast tract of country, every hill in which is large enough to swallow up a brigade of infantry, where consolidation on the rocky slopes is very difficult, in which tanks can only operate in small numbers, where movement of guns and vehicles is very restricted and where the division had to rely on pack mules for its supplies and to carry wireless telegraphy sets, tools and mortars.[4]
