Why this ride
A 142 km round trip from Erriadh - roughly 3 h 05 in the saddle. The stops in between: Synagogue La Ghriba, Mosquée Sidi Zekri, Mosquée Moghzel and Mosquée Tlakine.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mosquée El Fguira and Mosquée Tlakine
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 142 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 05
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mosquée El Fguira
El Fguira stands in the south of Djerba, a long way from the bustle of Houmt Souk, in a part of the island where the farms are bigger and the roads quiet. The label puts it among the more remote of the mosques that make up the Djerba listing, and the journey is a pleasure in itself. The mosque is a small, whitewashed building with strong buttresses and a rounded roof, standing among olive trees and palms, and its shape is as simple as a child's drawing of a house. Like the others, it is still used for prayer, so it should be seen from outside and with respect.
Read the complete Mosquée El Fguira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mosquée El Fguira is where the day begins. Next is Synagogue La Ghriba.
2. Synagogue La Ghriba
La Ghriba stands on the island of Djerba, just outside the village of Erriadh, and it is among the oldest Jewish places of worship in North Africa. The name means the Stranger, or the Marvellous, and the stories about its beginning stretch back to a priest who fled Jerusalem after the destruction of the First Temple, bringing a door or a stone. Whatever the truth of that, the building you see today is much later, a nineteenth-century structure with a whitewashed exterior and an interior of blue, turquoise and gold tiles, carved wood and low lamps that give the prayer hall an underwater glow.
Read the complete Synagogue La Ghriba write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Synagogue La Ghriba comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mosquée Sidi Zekri.
3. Mosquée Sidi Zekri
Sidi Zekri is one of the many small religious buildings of Djerba, an island where it sometimes seems that every field has a whitewashed dome in it. The name suggests a local holy man, the sort of marabout who is buried under a domed tomb and whose tomb draws believers seeking help with illness or family troubles. Many such places are small and quiet, and are looked after by neighbours rather than by any big institution.
Read the complete Mosquée Sidi Zekri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 36 km into the recorded legs you reach Mosquée Sidi Zekri. Next is Mosquée Moghzel.
4. Mosquée Moghzel
Djerba is a flat, low island off the south coast of Tunisia, joined to the mainland by a Roman causeway and a ferry, and its landscape of olive groves, palms and whitewashed farmhouses is dotted with small mosques that look more like fortresses than places of prayer. The Moghzel mosque is one of them. Djerba has a long Ibadi tradition, a branch of Islam that is neither Sunni nor Shia, and many of the island's villages are Berber speaking, with architecture suited to hard times: thick walls, buttresses, small domes, and a plain whitewashed look that fits the sun and the sea.
Read the complete Mosquée Moghzel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mosquée Moghzel, about halfway. Next is Mosquée Tlakine.
5. Mosquée Tlakine
Djerba is covered in small mosques, hundreds of them, and the visitor who sets out to find the quiet ones soon realises that you cannot ride more than a few kilometres without passing a whitewashed dome. Tlakine is one of those village mosques on the island's interior, set among olive and palm plantations between Houmt El Souk and the villages to the east. Most Djerbian mosques belong to the Ibadi tradition, a distinctive branch of Islam that survives in only a few places, including Oman, Djerba and parts of the Mzab in Algeria. The island's Ibadi community took refuge here when persecuted elsewhere, and built mosques that look more like fortresses than places of worship.
Read the complete Mosquée Tlakine write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mosquée Tlakine sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mosquée Moghzel.
6. back through Mosquée Moghzel
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mosquée Moghzel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mosquée Moghzel comes up about 92 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Mosquée Sidi Zekri.
7. back through Mosquée Sidi Zekri
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mosquée Sidi Zekri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 107 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Mosquée Sidi Zekri. Next is back through Synagogue La Ghriba.
8. back through Synagogue La Ghriba
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Synagogue La Ghriba write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Synagogue La Ghriba, late in the day. Next is Mosquée El Fguira.
9. Mosquée El Fguira
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mosquée El Fguira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 142 km.
Leg by leg
Mosquée El Fguira to Synagogue La Ghriba
Mosquée El Fguira → Synagogue La Ghriba is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Synagogue La Ghriba to Mosquée Sidi Zekri
Synagogue La Ghriba → Mosquée Sidi Zekri is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Sidi Zekri to Mosquée Moghzel
Mosquée Sidi Zekri → Mosquée Moghzel is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Moghzel to Mosquée Tlakine
Mosquée Moghzel → Mosquée Tlakine is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Tlakine to back through Mosquée Moghzel
Mosquée Tlakine → back through Mosquée Moghzel is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mosquée Moghzel to back through Mosquée Sidi Zekri
back through Mosquée Moghzel → back through Mosquée Sidi Zekri is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mosquée Sidi Zekri to back through Synagogue La Ghriba
back through Mosquée Sidi Zekri → back through Synagogue La Ghriba is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Synagogue La Ghriba to Mosquée El Fguira
back through Synagogue La Ghriba → Mosquée El Fguira is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.