Tunisia -- Tozeur

How many people have ever heard of Tozeur? Not many and certainly not me. However, this small town (population 116,000) is an important oasis in one of the hottest areas of the Sahara Desert. It also has a long and ancient history that continues to this day specifically because it has water. 

The oasis with its hundreds of thousands of palm trees that are able to survive due to the underground springs was an important stopover for caravans traveling through the Sahara first for the Romans, then Byzantium and the Vandal Kingdom. During these times the city's name was Tusuros. It was also a former Catholic bishopric. The Arabs renamed the city Tozeur after they conquered these lands in the 7th century.

Today, irrigation sustains the trees where dates are grown and exported. And the town still serves as an important crossroads in the desert for the tourism industry.

Our travel group visited Tozeur to experience this important oasis, its palm trees, brick industry, and its medina.

 

 

Palm trees  

This man is 63 years old and he has worked on the oasis' palm trees all his life. While he is still able to do his job, which includes climbing to the top of these trees to pollinate them, he hopes his sons do not follow his example. He wishes a better more urban life for them. 

    

Our local guide, Safar (right), shows us the date, the fruit of the palm tree. Dates are a major export and industry for Tozeur. Tourism is its other asset, like these carriage rides that transported us from the hotel to the palm tree farm.

                                            

                                                   

Irrigation is key to the palm tree's survival since temperatures in this arid region can go as high as 120F degrees. Since the 13th century the trees have depended on natural underground springs to sustain them. In fact, Tozeur means "water spring". Palm trees, however, need water that is 73F degrees. To understand how water is pumped from the ground and cooled for the trees, see my other blog, "Salt Lake".

 

Bricks of Tozeur

Tozeur is noted for its yellow/brownish brickwork as well as its traditional Berber geometric patterns that cover the facades of most buildings in the old city. This brick is government-protected so that only buildings in this area are allowed to use them. 

Below is the process for brickmaking. The first step is to mix the clay with sand and water.

The mix is put into forms and dried.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bricks are scraped (left) to make them smooth and then stacked to get them ready for the kiln.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bricks are placed inside the kiln, which is fired up with dried palm branches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the bricks are "cooked" in the kiln, they are stacked to cool for four days when they become yellow ochre in color.

The bricks represent the true soul of the city and are the hallmark of Saharan architecture. Below are examples of the city's brickwork on public buildings and in the medina.

 

Medina

A medina comprises residences, a market, a mosque, and military protection. Among the products sold in the Tozeur medina's market are dates, pickles, and carpets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cats are everywhere in Tunisia. But they have a specific job in medinas: to rid the streets of rodents. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Arabs built onto old Roman walls and buildings. The large stones are Roman and the bricks are Arab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tunisians have many legends and superstitions. Our guide told us of one where a girl who wants to marry throws a stone over her shoulder to ensure her with a husband. If it lands in one of the cubbyholes of this wall, she will get her wish. A few girls got lucky as the photo on the left shows.

 

 

The medina had a couple green doors like this one, which indicates a small mosque is on the inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hotel

 

Tourism is Tozeur's second biggest industry. We stayed at this beautiful hotel where each guest room was on stilts. The dining room was beautifully decorated and it accommodated three to four groups. 

We had a super dinner, one I'd been looking for: grilled meat (shish kabob of turkey, lamb and beef) and grilled vegetables. The lamb was the best and the turkey was tasty while the beef was dry and tasteless. 

My bedroom had all the comforts of home plus a fruit bowl of oranges, apples, and dates on the table ready to eat. (I can't get enough Tunisian dates!) There was even laundry soap in the bathroom, which I needed for my jeans that smelled of camel slobber, the result of a camel wiping his nose on me while we were out riding them in the desert. I hung the jeans out on the porch and they were dry by the end of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 Breakfast was delivered to my room by a woman carrying this basket on her head and a box of juice, coffee, milk, and water in her hand. It consisted of an omelette, a French croissant, butter, and jam. The woman comes in quickly, sets down the food, and leaves.

The only problem with this room was the heater/fan above the bed. It was on all night and ended up drying up my throat and giving me a cough and cold. A few days later I had diarrhea. Ugh! However, this unfortunate turn of events gave me a chance to meditate on what it means to be sick while traveling.

One strange thing about this hotel was the Internet. It is available in only one place: the restaurant/swimming pool. It was interesting to see that once we arrived at the hotel, we all rushed to this hot point to check our phones since we had gone a day or two without Internet service. Funny how we get attached to this technology! Meanwhile, Cathy, one of the women in the group, shared 15 of her desert photos with me. She is an artist and her iPhone takes fantastic shots. I guess my next phone will be one of these expensive phones. It's so easy to get sucked into this stuff.

 Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tozeur

TunisiaTourism.info

Tunisia -- Salt Lake

It looks like an eerie, lifeless moonscape. And, even though they are called "lakes", they are not lakes at all. They are expanses of dried mud covered with a thick crust of white or gray salt. The glistening salt in the sun makes them look as though they hold water. Geologists believe these lands were part of the Meditarranean Sea that were formed by tectonic plates that collided. That's why there are mountains and flat lands next to each other.

Greek mythology refers to salt "lakes" as they describe a sea with monsters. In the 12th century, Arab travelers describe crossing these lands. They'd follow the same path in order to avoid being trapped by quicksand as a runaway camel did once and fell through and died.

Arab engineers have built the road that passes through these lands, however, maintenance is constant because the road sinks. We passed a work crew here.

The Arabs called these "lakes" shats  and the French transliterated them to chotts, which means broad canal or estuary. The "lake" that we saw was called Chott El Jerid, the largest in the Sahara Desert. The three chotts in this area are 2,000 square miles in size and nothing lives there and nothing can be built there. (One of the battles in the film, Star Wars, took place here.) 

If it rains, the "lakes" turn to quicksand, so it is necessary to wait two to four weeks for the land to dry before walking on its surface. The water can accumulate to reach three to four feet. Nevertheless, if you dig in the dry mud about the length of your arm, you can reach water. So, if you walk on this mud, you could lose a shoe.

People visit here because it is a gem of Nature. In fact, when our guide was a teenager, he and his family would visit the "lakes". He said when there is water on the "lakes" it is a spectacular sight because the mountains reflect on the water and the salt twinkles. This phenomenon forms a mirage because hot air reflects light and creates an optical illusion. 

In 2023, Tunisian fashion models did a shoot here where they were walking on the "lake". 

There are other minerals here besides salt. For example, the iron makes the soil rusty. Evaporated rain leaves the salt behind and leaves a film of salt on the surface.

 

Many people take a "Sunday" drive to the salt lake. Some have a little fun by pretending they are on the moon. They construct Star Wars characters and plant flags on the desert mounds.

 

  

A factory extracts salt from the salt lakes to sell on the market as an export.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desert rose is a formation of gypsum and barite with sand inclusions. It's an odd but pretty crusty stone. You can find it in Medina shops. This store was in the desert.

 

Algeria is not that far away from this part of western Tunisia, only 93 miles away.

 

 

Pumping water out of the desert 

Three thousand feet below ground is an aquifer with water that is pumped to the surface. And, it's not just any water; it is very hot water between 113 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The water goes through four-story water cooler (notice the steam coming off the building) before it washes down into a series of troughs to bring the temperature way down. The water is used to irrigate palm trees in a nearby oasis of the area. The trees can only tolerate temperatures of 73 degrees F.

 

These men take advantage of the hot water to do a little thermal bathing.

To find more water, engineers are also studying desalinization of the desert water, but the expense at this time is very great. They are also considering a plan that had been concocted by the French in the late 1800s to build lines from the Mediterranean Sea to the salt lakes in order to create an inland "Sahara Sea". Back then this plan was abandoned when the French government withdrew funding.

 

 Resources

Salt lakes -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_salt_lakes