Why this ride
A 143 km round trip from Houmt El Souk - roughly 2 h 56 in the saddle. On the way it passes Mosquée Imghar, Mosquée El Bessi, Mosquée El Fguira and back through Mosquée El Bessi.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mosquée Sidi Salem and Mosquée El Fguira
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 143 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 56
- 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 Sidi Salem
Sidi is the title given to a local holy man, and many Djerban mosques and small domed tombs carry a saint's name, with a whitewashed cube or dome standing beside a tree at the edge of a field. Sidi Salem sits in the north-west of the island, between Houmt Souk and the sea, in an area of olive groves and market gardens where the land is so flat that you can see every dome for miles. On the coast not far away, the Borj Ghazi Mustapha, a square sixteenth-century fort that the Spanish built and the Ottomans took, stands over the shallow water at the old harbour entrance.
Read the complete Mosquée Sidi Salem write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mosquée Sidi Salem is where the day begins. Next is Mosquée Imghar.
2. 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
Mosquée Imghar comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mosquée El Bessi.
3. Mosquée El Bessi
Djerba is an island that Odysseus is supposed to have visited. Homer's lotus-eaters, who fed him and his men a fruit that made them forget home, are traditionally placed here, and it is easy to see how a visitor might think so, with its white houses, palms, olive groves and slow warm air. The island lies off the south-eastern coast of Tunisia in the Gulf of Gabès, flat, sandy and joined to the mainland by a Roman causeway, and it has long been home to a mix of peoples: Berber-speaking Ibadi Muslims, Jews and Arabs. UNESCO listed the island's pattern of settlement in 2023.
Read the complete Mosquée El Bessi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Mosquée El Bessi. Next is Mosquée El Fguira.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Mosquée El Bessi.
5. back through Mosquée El Bessi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mosquée El Bessi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mosquée El Bessi sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mosquée Imghar.
6. back through Mosquée Imghar
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Mosquée Imghar comes up about 119 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mosquée Sidi Salem.
7. Mosquée Sidi Salem
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mosquée Sidi Salem write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mosquée Sidi Salem closes the day.
Leg by leg
Mosquée Sidi Salem to Mosquée Imghar
Mosquée Sidi Salem → Mosquée Imghar is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Imghar to Mosquée El Bessi
Mosquée Imghar → Mosquée El Bessi is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée El Bessi to Mosquée El Fguira
Mosquée El Bessi → Mosquée El Fguira is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée El Fguira to back through Mosquée El Bessi
Mosquée El Fguira → back through Mosquée El Bessi is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mosquée El Bessi to back through Mosquée Imghar
back through Mosquée El Bessi → back through Mosquée Imghar is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mosquée Imghar to Mosquée Sidi Salem
back through Mosquée Imghar → Mosquée Sidi Salem is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.