Djerba, Tunisia Travel Pictures

Jerba is an island about 20x20 km located in the south of Tunisia, not very far from the Libyan border. It is populated by diverse people, amongst them local Berbers, black Slaves, and Jews who originally flew from Jerusalem around 100 BC. The island is connected to the mainland by a road, originally built by the Romans at a point where the water was just 1 meter deep, and by a ferry. Drinking water is pipelined into Jerba from the mainland.

Jerba is very touristy, catering to package tourists traveling from Europe and operates it's own international airport to ship them in. All locals in contact with tourists speak a wide array array of languages next to Arabic and French: German, Italian, Spanish and English. The hotels along the the northeast coast of Jerba are plenty and built next to each other, nevertheless many parts of the island are quite remote and untouched. Numerous tours of the island and the nearby mainland are available. You can also go on your own by bicycle, motorbike, rental car or taxi.

We did an organized tour on the mainland (Matmata, Gabes), rented a car for a day to tour the island on our own, and checked out the local-market at Midoun by taxi. We spent much of the rest of the week relaxing at the pool or beach, lazy us. The images of our tour are split over two pages. This trip was from 15 to 22 September 2001.

Pictures Part 1: Hotel and Beach environment in Jerba, Tour to Matmata, location of unique underground homes


This mouse was busy finding food at Bahnhof Enge station in Zurich. By popular demand: The Mouse Page!	This Tunisair plane took us from Basel direct to Djerba

Our Hotel, 'Djerba Palace'	View from our hotel balcony

The sea from our hotel balcony. We'd paid a seaview premium for our room, somehow having a better image of it in our mind's eye...	Relaxing at the hotel pool

On the path to the sea, some local buildings and a parachutist pulled by a boat	The path to the sea!

Tunisian Sunshades	The sea at last!

At Djerba beach	Camel rides along the beach

Proud camels, they're soooo cool!!	So many souvenir plates for sale at the beach

Sinking clay camels at the beach	Beach Souvenir

A local fishing boat	Beach cafe selling 'Sandwitches'

We didn't see any live dolphins but this is how they must look like	A bit of algae art on the beach

This animation involved tourists pulling their ears and doing knee-bends to the beat of the music. It's amazing what group-pressure can make you do! :-)	Some turpentine to get the tar off your feet after a beach walk

Desert scene on the way to Matmata	Camels rides for rent

Palmtrees heavy with dates	There were also some red dates

At Matamata, locals used to live in underground clay homes dug out by hand, 3 meters below ground level	Matmata underground house entrance

Simple interior of Matmata underground house	Old woman grinding flour inside an underground house

We had lunch in this underground restaurant. On the wall's a painting of an underground house	Desert landscape. Nearby here, some scenes of 'Star Wars' were shot

Baby camel drinking from a baby milk bottle poses for the tourist cameras. 1 Dinar.	Ancient Corn Store

Corn Store with Mosque in background	Corn Store

Local in traditional dress	Looking out of a room of corn store

Colourful wares for sale	Some desert souvenirs

Goat peeking out of it's home	This road in the sea connects Djerba to mainland Tunisia. It was originally built by the Romans. The Djerba water supply pipes can be seen on the left