Tunisia | Michel's Blog

Summer season’s break of my blog during my vacation (~ 10 days)

Hello my friends !

I’m leaving after-tomorrow on vacation in Djerba (Tunisia, North Africa) and I will not have access to the Internet. I will try to find an internet-café but I’m not sure if there will be one available.

Djerba has a mild climate and a well cultivated soil. Its largest city is Houmt-Souk, with a population of around 60,000. The island is a popular tourist destination, particularly for French, German, Italian and Czech tourists, known for its beautiful beaches and dramatic sunsets. It is one of the few remaining places in Tunisia where a Berber language is still spoken. Another factor drawing some tourists to Djerba is the 1977 location of the Mos Eisley exterior scenes in the first Star Wars movie, filmed in the town of Ajim.

Djerba is noted as a center of the Islamic sect Al-Ibadhiyah and is also noted for its Jewish minority, which has dwelt on the island for more than 2,500 years, although the Jewish population has declined due to emigration to Israel and France since 1967. Most of the Djerba Jews belong to Cohanim, a tribe in Judaism, and have remained loyal Cohanim for centuries. The El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba is over 2,000 years old and is as such the oldest and one of the most famous in the world.

Djerba also has a a sizeable minority of Maltese Catholics, who established themselves on the island as sponge-fishers. Girba remains a Roman Catholic titular see in the ecclesiastical province of African Tripoli.

Anyway……as soon as I’ll come back to France, I will post some new pics here in Flickr and also in my facebook (See the “Contact-Me” tab to get the right link)

See you soon.

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