Why this ride
From Midoun it runs 60 km to Midoun; allow about 1 h 16 of riding. It goes by way of Mosquée Fadhloun, Mosquée Abou Messouer and back through Mosquée Fadhloun. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mosquée Louta and Mosquée Abou Messouer
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 60 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 16
- 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 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 is where the day begins. Next is Mosquée Fadhloun.
2. 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 comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mosquée Abou Messouer.
3. Mosquée Abou Messouer
Abou Messouer sits closer to Houmt Souk than most of the island's mosques, in a landscape of small farms and walled gardens, and it is a handy place to understand what makes a Djerban mosque different. The building is a compact block of white plaster, with the typical heavy buttresses, a small dome over the prayer hall and an outdoor space where people gather. The old Ibadi mosques were not only places of prayer but community centres, courts and schools, and some still hold a small Koranic school for children.
Read the complete Mosquée Abou Messouer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 29 km into the recorded legs you reach Mosquée Abou Messouer. Next is back through Mosquée Fadhloun.
4. back through 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 through Mosquée Fadhloun, late in the day. Next is Mosquée Louta.
5. 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 at Mosquée Louta. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Mosquée Louta to Mosquée Fadhloun
Mosquée Louta → Mosquée Fadhloun is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Fadhloun to Mosquée Abou Messouer
Mosquée Fadhloun → Mosquée Abou Messouer is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Abou Messouer to back through Mosquée Fadhloun
Mosquée Abou Messouer → back through Mosquée Fadhloun is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mosquée Fadhloun to Mosquée Louta
back through Mosquée Fadhloun → Mosquée Louta is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.