Why this ride
From Midoun it runs 84 km to Midoun; allow about 1 h 43 of riding. The stops in between: Eglise Saint Nicolas, Mosquée Imghar and back through Eglise Saint Nicolas. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mosquée Moghzel and Mosquée Imghar
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 84 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 43
- 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 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 is where the day begins. Next is Eglise Saint Nicolas.
2. Eglise Saint Nicolas
Houmt Souk is the island's main town, a place of whitewashed arcades, small squares and a busy fishing harbour, and the church of St Nicolas gives it a reminder that Djerba has never been exclusively one thing. The island has been home to Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities for centuries, and its location on the trade routes of the central Mediterranean brought Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards and Ottomans. In 1560, a Spanish and allied fleet was defeated nearby by an Ottoman force under Dragut, and the victors built a tower of the skulls of the dead beside the harbour, which stood until the nineteenth century. A monument now marks the site.
Read the complete Eglise Saint Nicolas write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Eglise Saint Nicolas comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mosquée Imghar.
3. Mosquée Imghar
Djerba's mosques look like small fortresses, which is more or less what they once were. Imghar, in the interior of the island, is one of the group of Ibadi mosques whose whitewashed walls, thick buttresses and low domes give them the air of a farmhouse that has been trained for war. Ibadism is a branch of Islam that predates the Sunni-Shia split, and it survives today mainly in Oman, parts of North Africa and here on Djerba, where it has shaped the island's culture for over a thousand years.
Read the complete Mosquée Imghar write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Mosquée Imghar. Next is back through Eglise Saint Nicolas.
4. back through Eglise Saint Nicolas
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eglise Saint Nicolas write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Eglise Saint Nicolas, late in the day. Next is Mosquée Moghzel.
5. 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 at Mosquée Moghzel. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Mosquée Moghzel to Eglise Saint Nicolas
Mosquée Moghzel → Eglise Saint Nicolas is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eglise Saint Nicolas to Mosquée Imghar
Eglise Saint Nicolas → Mosquée Imghar is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Imghar to back through Eglise Saint Nicolas
Mosquée Imghar → back through Eglise Saint Nicolas is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Eglise Saint Nicolas to Mosquée Moghzel
back through Eglise Saint Nicolas → Mosquée Moghzel is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.