Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern and Mosquée Berdaoui

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern

   In 2023 UNESCO added Djerba to its World Heritage list under a title that sounds more like a university thesis than a holiday island: Djerba, Testimony to a Settlement Pattern in an Island Territory. What it means in practice is that the island has kept the way people have lived on it for centuries. Instead of one big town, families lived in scattered farms called menzels, each surrounded by its own fields, and villages grew around mosques, markets and cisterns. Rain is scarce here, so water was collected from the roofs and stored in underground tanks, and the layout of the land reflects that.

   Read the complete Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern is where the day begins. Next is Mosquée El Bessi.

2. 2. Mosquée El Bessi

   Djerba is an island that Odysseus is supposed to have visited. Homer's lotus-eaters, who fed him and his men a fruit that made them forget home, are traditionally placed here, and it is easy to see how a visitor might think so, with its white houses, palms, olive groves and slow warm air. The island lies off the south-eastern coast of Tunisia in the Gulf of Gabès, flat, sandy and joined to the mainland by a Roman causeway, and it has long been home to a mix of peoples: Berber-speaking Ibadi Muslims, Jews and Arabs. UNESCO listed the island's pattern of settlement in 2023.

   Read the complete Mosquée El Bessi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Mosquée El Bessi comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mosquée Berdaoui.

3. 3. Mosquée Berdaoui

   The mosques of Djerba are like nothing else in the Muslim world. They are low, white and plain, with thick buttressed walls, small windows and flat or domed roofs, and from a distance they look like fortresses, which is more or less what they were. Djerba is an island off the south of Tunisia, flat and hot, and over the centuries it was raided by pirates and attacked by the Spanish, so its mosques were built to protect worshippers and store supplies. Most belong to the Ibadi school of Islam, a small branch distinct from the Sunni and Shia, which has survived on Djerba and in a few other places in North Africa for over a thousand years.

   Read the complete Mosquée Berdaoui write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Mosquée Berdaoui. Next is back through Mosquée El Bessi.

4. 4. back through Mosquée El Bessi

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mosquée El Bessi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Mosquée El Bessi, late in the day. Next is Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern.

5. 5. Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern. That is the ride.