Mosquée Fadhloun and Zone Hara Sghira

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Mosquée Fadhloun

   On Djerba, the mosques look like fortresses, and for good reason. The island off the south-east coast of Tunisia was a place of pirates, raiders and rival fleets, and its Ibadi Muslim community, a small branch of Islam distinct from the Sunni and Shia majorities, built its places of prayer as strongholds: thick whitewashed walls, stubby buttresses, few windows and flat roofs with small domes, so low and plain that they seem to grow out of the earth. The Fadhloun Mosque near Midoun is one of the best known, with a courtyard, prayer hall and, as in the others, an underground cistern to store rainwater, since the island has no rivers. Louta, the other mosque on this ride, belongs to the same family.

   Read the complete Mosquée Fadhloun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Mosquée Fadhloun is where the day begins. Next is Mosquée Louta.

2. 2. Mosquée Louta

   In the central and southern parts of the island, among olive groves and sandy lanes, stand small whitewashed mosques of the Ibadi tradition, with thick walls, simple domes and sometimes a short minaret and an outer stair. Some were built as places of refuge, with storerooms and wells inside, to serve scattered communities in times of raids, and others as neighbourhood mosques for a cluster of farms. Together they are among the features for which the island of Djerba was added to the UNESCO list in 2023.

   Read the complete Mosquée Louta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Mosquée Louta comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zone Hara Sghira.

3. 3. Zone Hara Sghira

   Hara Sghira means the little quarter, and for centuries it was the name of the Jewish village on Djerba's north coast, a few minutes from Houmt El Souk across flat olive and palm country. Today the modern town around it is called Erriadh, and it has two reputations. One is religious: the El Ghriba synagogue, which locals will tell you is the oldest in Africa, draws pilgrims every spring for a festival of candles and song, and visitors go through security checks at the gate, which is a sign of the troubled recent history rather than anything to be nervous about. The other is artistic, for in 2014 well over a hundred artists from dozens of countries covered the whitewashed walls of the village with murals, and the project, called Djerbahood, turned a sleepy street grid into an open-air gallery.

   Read the complete Zone Hara Sghira write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 30 km into the recorded legs you reach Zone Hara Sghira. Next is back through Mosquée Louta.

4. 4. back through Mosquée Louta

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mosquée Louta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Mosquée Louta, late in the day. Next is Mosquée Fadhloun.

5. 5. Mosquée Fadhloun

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mosquée Fadhloun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Mosquée Fadhloun. That is the ride.