Djerba & Desert
Why go?
Djerba, in the Gulf of Gabes, is the largest island off the coast
of North Africa. Habitat of Homer’s legendary Lotus Eaters,
the island’s character is very different from the mainland,
to which it is joined by a causeway dating from Roman times. Even
before the Romans turned up the island was colonised by the
Phoenicians - and afterwards by just about everyone else, including
the Turks and the French. Djerba also has a sizeable Jewish
population (distinguishable from the Muslims by the conical straw
hats the women wear on top of their head scarves); the Ghriba
Synagogue, whose foundations are said to date from 586 BC, is one
of Africa's oldest. The Muslims of Djerba are unusual too,
belonging to the Al-Ibadhiyah sect which is distinct from both
Sunni and Shia branches of Islam.
The island is flat and agricultural, with dates, figs and olives
the primary crops. The capital, Houmt Souk, is a relaxed town with
shady squares, outdoor cafés and bustling souks selling
crafts (especially ceramics), spices etc. Like the rest of the
island the town has a quasi-Greek feel, with whitewashed buildings
(including around 200 mosques), whose doors and windows are picked
out in sky blue - or grass green, if it’s a religious
building. Djerba has some beautiful beaches, particularly in the
zone touristique, and from the coast you can see the
fisherman who sail out every morning from the small port of Ajim to
trap octopus in terracotta pots - just as the Romans did two
millennia ago.
Inland from the Mediterranean coast are strings of mountains
punctuated by the towns of Matmata and Tataouine. It's a landscape
of orange peaks and deep valleys, studded with eucalyptus and
acacia, palms and olives. Here dramatic hilltop villages such as
Chenini and Douiret seem to grow out of the rock, almost invisible
but for their little whitewashed mosques. The area around Matmata
is renowned for the amazing troglodyte houses of the Berbers. Dug
from the bare rock, these circular pits with radial rooms keep the
inhabitants cool in summer and warm in winter. Some of these are
still lived in, and the residents will let you explore inside
– in return for a small baksheesh (gratuity). And if
the scenery seems strangely familiar (particularly to movie buffs)
it may be because Matmata was the location for the first Star Wars
film, with the present-day Sidi Driss Hotel standing in for the
interior of Luke Skywalker’s home.
South of Matmata is Tataouine, an easy-going town with a lively
market on Monday and Thursday mornings - the most important in the
area. Scattered around Tataouine are the beautiful Berber
ksour, fortified residences and grain stores, notably at
Ouled Soltane (pictured) to the south of the town. These medieval,
mud-built Manhattans stand over four storeys high and contain
individual ghofras (storerooms), which were used until very
recently by the Berber nomads to hoard grain, olive oil and dates
in large clay amphorae. You can climb the narrow steps to
the futuristic pod-like ghofras, which have also earned starring
roles in the Star Wars movies, standing in as Jedi houses.
Heading east are the vast chotts (salt lakes) of el-Feljaj,
el-Jerid and el-Gharsa, where scenes from the English Patient were
filmed; these divide the mountains of the north and east from the
deserts of the south and west. On their fringes is the oasis of
Douz, the self-styled “gateway to the Sahara” with its
bustling Thursday market. Where the town meets the desert
you’ll find nomads offering camel rides into the dunes, and
you can also walk along the tracks that wind between the groves of
the palmeraie - which, with 500,000 palms, is the largest in
the country.
Further east, in the area known as the Jerid, are two more oasis
towns: Nefta and Tozeur. Nefta, the smaller of the two, is a sleepy
place unspoiled by mass tourism - though it does attract religious
tourists as it’s a centre of Sufism (a mystical branch of
Islam), and is packed with zawiyyas (holy shrines). The town
is bisected by the 'Corbeille', a vast wadi (dry gorge)
which cleaves its way through rocky hills to end in the oasis.
Tozeur is larger and more visited, its chief appeal being the huge
palmeraie: ten square kilometres of irrigated date palms, a
lush and shady contrast to the dry and dusty town. Parts of the old
centre date back to the 14th century and you can explore the
tunnel-like streets of yellow patterned brick houses with old,
iron-studded doors. There are some important Moslem sites here too,
such as the Great Mosque (begun in 1030) and the zawiyya of
Sidi Ali Abu Lifah, dating from 1282.
South of Tozeur and the Chott el-Jerid, the immensity of the Sahara
desert begins. In Tunisia it tapers to a point 300 kilometres to
the south, where the vast, empty dunes of the Great Eastern Erg
meet the borders of the much larger desert countries of Algeria and
Libya.