As one draws close to Djerba, one has the impression of a Polynesian world. Here one is invaded by a smooth and serene welbeing. The island of the lotus-eaters almost convinced Ulysses to give up wandering, and to stay forever.

History
Djerba was well-known during ancient times, since Ulysses, Homer’s hero, stopped over here. First it was Carthaginian and then Roman. Two Roman emperors were born here. There are Roman remains on the island: Meninx, near El Kantara, is the 6 km Roman road that still links the island to the continent. For many years it lay devasted, but has now been re-built. For some time, Christianity spread.
Invaded by the Vandals, then by the Byzantines, the island was conquered by the Arabs in 667. Then, the Hilali tribes, who came from the Middle East in the 11th century, devastated it. It witnessed many other troubles for centuries. It was the operational base of Drangt and Barberousse, the major Turkish pirates.
Djerba is the only site in Tunisia for the adepts of the ‘schismatic’ Muslim sect, the Kharejites.

Geography
Djerba is 25 km long and 22 km wide, with a 514-km2 area. It has a 125 km coastline: one tenth of the Tunisian coast, which is flat lowland. Because of the influence of a moderate sea, the climate is very mild. Djerba has a population of about 80,000. It is largely of Berber origin and Muslim with a small Kharegite minority. The Jewish community, which is very small today, was been well-established on the island, well before the Arabs, and probably for more than twenty or twenty-five centuries.
Apart from the county town of Houmt Souk, the rest of the island consists of small villages with scattered housing: Sedghiane, Midoun, Sedouikech, Guellala, Agim... In the middle of the Menzel, a farming plot fenced with a sand levee and cacti, one finds the house known as the Houch. The economy is fairly diversified. Arboriculture is practised here: palm, olive, vine trees, fig, apple, almond, apricot, orange and pomegranate. The island also produces vegetables and cereals. Animal breeding is on a modest scale. The surroundings of the island are favourable to fishing. The main handicrafts are weaving and pottery.

Houmt Souk
The island’s administrative capital is a small town that has preserved its olde-worlde charm.

The Souks
In the heart of the medina, the souks are a network of small shop-lined narrow alleys. The souks are always lively. Here you can find cloth, carpets, utensils and jewelry. The jewellers’ souk reflects the island’s prosperity.

Handicraft Workshops
Handicraft shops are numerous, for instance, weavers and blacksmiths...

Foundouks
In the middle of the souks, there are single-style foundouks, caravanserais, or small hotels, consisting of a large central courtyard surrounded by a two-level small cell gallery.

Four Monuments
In the souk and foundouk area, there are four religious monuments - Zaouia Sidi Brahim El Jemni, a complex including a medersa, a bakery, a hammam and a mausoleum; Jemaa el Ghorba (The Mosque of Foreigners), of the Malekite rite; Jemaa et Trouk (The Mosque of the Turks), a Hanefite rite. Jemaa ech Cheikh (Ech Cheikh Mosque) is the main Ibadite sanctuary (Kaharejite).

Borj el Kebir (The Great Fortress)
Borj el Kebir is also called Borj Ghazi Mustapha or the Spanish fortress. Roger de Loria, the Admiral of Aragon and Sicily built the new fortress on the ancient ruins of a Roman fortress. In the middle of the 15th century, the Hafsid Sultan, Abou Fares el Hafsi, completed the construction, which was also reinforced by Dragnt, the pirate, in 1557 and in 1560 by the Spanish, who were besieged and exterminated the same year.
The fortress has a rectangular form and has many towers and a very large perimeter fence. You can find here canons, ceramic fragments, canon bullets and Roman remains.

The Museum of Popular Art & Traditions
The museum enables visitors to discover the wealth of the island’s folklore. The collection is well-presented, with detailed explanations. Here you will find a rich treasure of costumes from various social and ethnic groups, jewels made by Jewish craftsmen, volumes of the Koran, plus trunks, kitchen utensils, a reconstructed pottery workshop with examples of pottery, large amphorae, ornamental plaster-work and ancient ceramic tiles.
From Houmt Souk, you can travel by boat to the very end of the Ras er Rmel sandy peninsula. Here the beach is beautiful, the water is pure and the landscape is untouched. Organised excursions, with delicious lunches, are available.

The Surroundings of Houmt Souk
There are a number of mosques to be found in the Houmt Souk area. The first is Abou Messwer or Jemaa el Kebir. Abou Messwer was a major 10th-century Ibadite theologian, who struggled against Khalifism, a form of Shiism derived from Ibadism. His son completed building the mosque.
Jemaa el Bardaoui (El Bardaoui Mosque), on the road to Ajim, is an underground mosque where the persecuted Ibadites used to hide in order to pray.

Jewish Villages
The Hara Kbira, which has become es-Souani, is situated near Houmt Souk. The houses are low and dominated by the four courts of the synagogue. Each of the sanctuary walls has three windows. The twelve windows represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The Hara Sghira is now called er-Riadh, and is the oldest Jewish village in Djerba.
It is here that you can visit the Ghriba Synagogue, where pilgrim Jews from all over the world, and especially native Jewish Tunisians, meet every year for the Ghriba Festival. The synagogue keeps one of the most ancient Torah in the world.

Jews in Tunisia
The first Jews probably arrived in Tunisia at the end of the 6th century A.D following the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. Some of them settled in Djerba. The first wave probably built the Ghriba Synagogue, a major religious shrine. Other groups settled in the country after Titus’s occupation of Jerusalem and the deportations he ordered in 70 A.D.
The Spanish community arrived by the end of the 14th century, and also in 1492 when the Christians re-conquered Spain. Some came direct, others arrived after a stay in Leghorn in Italy. These are the Jews from Leghorn also known as Grana Jews.

An Exceptional World
Houses are scattered and neighbourhoods are rare. For this reason, the few neighbourhoods have a distinctive character. Sedouikech is a hamlet with white dome houses, and the weekly market is held on Tuesdays. You can find here esparto-grass wares and wickerwork. In El May, the mosque resembles a small fortress, a sanctuary typical of Djerba’s mosques.
Ajim is the main island port, with the Jorf ferry pier. In addition to the Roman road, the ferry links the island to the continent. Ajim is also a fishing port well-known for its sponge fishing. In the vicinity, you can find the most dense palm tree grove in the area. Although the dates are not of the best quality, the palm trees do produce the legmi juice, which is obtained from the base of the branches. The juice is sweet, and quickly ferments to become an alcoholic drink.
Guellala is the Island’s capital of pottery, and is a charming little village.
Mahboubine is a garden-village, located in the middle of vineyards, fruit and olive groves. The Jemaa el Kareb (El Kareb Mosque) is interesting. The best menzels are found just outside the village.
Midoun, the island’s second-largest village after Houmt Souk, has a number of mosques. Its weekly outdoor market is held on Fridays and sells fruit, vegetables, fish, pottery, baskets and mats.
Some of the most beautiful orchards are found in Sedghiane.

The Island of El Kantara
This is the beginning of the Roman road. Just a few kilometres to the north, you can find traces of ancient Meninx, founded ten centuries before Christ. The Phoenicians established workshops here for producing purple dye. You can also visit the ruins of a major Christian basilica, captitols, and marble columns.

Thirty kilometres of Beaches and Palaces
The white, sandy beaches which stretch as far as Aghir in the southeast start just a few kilometres from Houmt Souk, on the island’s north-eastern coast. It is on this beautiful coast that luxury hotels and holiday resorts have been built.
The development of tourism has been astonishing, and for the local people, tourism is now the most important economic resource. The hotel infrastructure is top-level. Despite the significant number of hotels, they are quite distant form one another, so that in no way does the visitor feel overcrowded. A great deal of thought was given to the architecture, design and building of these hotels, so as to integrate them into the environment.
The island’s hotel infrastructure consists of 97 units with 33,624 beds. Around 12,000 people are employed in the hotel industry itself, with close to 30,000 in allied industries. Hotels employ around 12,000 people whereas indirect jobs are close to 30,000. If the nearby area of Zarzis is included, the overall figure reaches 111 hotels, with 39,364 beds, 15,000 direct hotel jobs, and 35,000 jobs in allied industries.
Entertainment in the Djerba hotel business is particularly well catered for. There are numerous tennis courts, and all the facilities to practice water-skiing, scuba-diving and horseback riding. Bike riding and horseback riding enable tourists to discover the hidden charms of landscapes, menzels, villages and countless mosques.
The golf course, designed by Martin Hawtree, is a two-course combination: a 6,130 metre eighteen-hole course, and a 2,005 metre nine-hole course. Djerba has an international airport with direct links to major European cities, only one or two hours away. A one or two-hour flight takes the tourist to this paradise on earth.