Excursions from Djerba - Zarzis

By air or four-wheel-drive vehicle, the visitor to this green oasis is only an hour away from the Tunisian desert.
A grandiose world with a Dante-esque landscape. A salt desert, the Chott, and a golden sand desert, the sand of Saharan legend. A desert which can only show the essential and which fascinates in its absoluteness.

CHENINI
A mountain market town. The houses hollowed out of the mountainside were a safe refuge for the Berbers when invaders raided the land. Here the people still speak a Berber dialect which mothers pass on directly to their children.

KSAR HADDADA
The Ksar, which means castle or fort, like a closed city consisting of niches ghorfas, superimposed in storeys. The niches, which are difficult to get into, were used to store provisions and sometimes as hiding places. Today, visitors can find themselves a cherish resting-place thanks to discreet layouts which do not disturb the general appearance of the ghorfas thus transformed into chains or "marhalas".

MEDENINE
The most famous ghorfas are those of Médenine. There used to be six thousand rising as high as six storeys. This is where the finest carpets and "Klims" are found.

FOUM TATAOUINE
A most picturesque spot whose name sounds like a drum roll. Equally famous for its festival which is held every spring.

MATMATA
At Matmata the dwellings are hollowed out of the walls of wide pits themselves dug into the sun-parched valley, giving the landscape a most striking appearance.

TOUJANE
25 kilometres further on, Toujane's setting is even more impressive : ghorfas dominated by a peak surmounted by a small fort. As a whole it makes a grandiose and majestic picture.