Why this ride
A 59 km round trip from Erriadh - roughly 1 h 24 in the saddle. On the way it passes Mosquée Fadhloun, Mosquée Louta and back through Mosquée Fadhloun.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Zone Mejmej and Mosquée Louta
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 59 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 24
- 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. 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
Zone Mejmej 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 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mosquée Louta.
3. 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
about 29 km into the recorded legs you reach Mosquée Louta. 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 Zone Mejmej.
5. 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
Back at Zone Mejmej. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Zone Mejmej to Mosquée Fadhloun
Zone Mejmej → Mosquée Fadhloun is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Fadhloun to Mosquée Louta
Mosquée Fadhloun → Mosquée Louta is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mosquée Louta to back through Mosquée Fadhloun
Mosquée Louta → back through Mosquée Fadhloun is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mosquée Fadhloun to Zone Mejmej
back through Mosquée Fadhloun → Zone Mejmej is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.