Why this ride
From Midoun it runs 125 km to Midoun; allow about 2 h 54 of riding. It goes by way of Mosquée Fadhloun, Zone Mejmej, Mosquée Medrajen and Mosquée Abou Messouer.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mosquée Louta and Mosquée Abou Messouer
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 125 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 54
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 17 km in. Next is Zone Mejmej.
3. Zone Mejmej
Mejmej is a rural district in the south-west of Djerba, a little way from Erriadh, and it feels like the island's countryside as it was before tourism: small fields of barley and vegetables between lines of olive trees, palm groves, and low white farmhouses behind hedges of prickly pear. The ground is flat and the horizon wide, and the sky looks bigger than it does on the mainland. A few kilometres to the south, the sea is shallow and warm, and the tide leaves long flats where people gather shellfish.
Read the complete Zone Mejmej write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
34 km in you reach Zone Mejmej. Next is Mosquée Medrajen.
4. Mosquée Medrajen
The east of Djerba is the island's holiday coast, with long beaches, a line of big hotels and the busy market town of Midoun just inland, but the older island is not far behind. The Mosque of Medrajen, in the countryside between Midoun and the sea, belongs to the group of fortified Ibadi mosques that dot the interior, and it reminds visitors that the island was farmland and olive groves long before it was a resort.
Read the complete Mosquée Medrajen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mosquée Medrajen, about halfway. Next is Mosquée Abou Messouer.
5. 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
Mosquée Abou Messouer sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mosquée Medrajen.
6. back through Mosquée Medrajen
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mosquée Medrajen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mosquée Medrajen comes up 86 km in. Next is back through Zone Mejmej.
7. back through Zone Mejmej
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zone Mejmej write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
103 km in you reach back through Zone Mejmej. Next is back through Mosquée Fadhloun.
8. 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.
9. 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
The route ends here after 125 km.
Leg by leg
Mosquée Louta to Mosquée Fadhloun
Mosquée Louta → Mosquée Fadhloun is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Fadhloun to Zone Mejmej
Mosquée Fadhloun → Zone Mejmej is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zone Mejmej to Mosquée Medrajen
Zone Mejmej → Mosquée Medrajen is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Medrajen to Mosquée Abou Messouer
Mosquée Medrajen → Mosquée Abou Messouer is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Abou Messouer to back through Mosquée Medrajen
Mosquée Abou Messouer → back through Mosquée Medrajen is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mosquée Medrajen to back through Zone Mejmej
back through Mosquée Medrajen → back through Zone Mejmej is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zone Mejmej to back through Mosquée Fadhloun
back through Zone Mejmej → back through Mosquée Fadhloun is 17 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 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.