This perfect desert oasis enchants all who visit. Tozeur is a world apart from Tunisian seaside resorts such as Sousse and Hammamet, with a medina (old town) full of unique brick-patterned architecture and a rambling palm grove that cuts a sea of green through the desert sand.
Would-be adventurers will find plenty of tourist attractions and things to do in the surrounding countryside, whether it’s dune bashing, admiring hot springs, salt pans and even visiting the crumbling and surreal remains of a Star Wars movie set just outside the city. But no matter how you spend your time, don’t miss a trip to the oases of Tamerza, Chebikaand Mideswhere you can appreciate some of Tunisia’s most breathtaking landscapes.
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1 The oasis
The beautiful date palm oasis of Tozeur is a serene and tranquil world. Here, under the shade of sprawling palms, a series of red-dirt trails wind through a wonderland of lush farmland. About 400,000 date palm trees grow there. You can drive through to experience this peaceful desert garden on donkey, bicycle, camel, horse and cart, or you can just walk. The oasis is located on the southeast side of Tozeur and is accessible via Avenue Abou El Kacem Ech-Chabbi from where a number of small streets run south to the oasis. Within the oasis itself there are six small hamlets that can be visited, the most important of which are Bled el-Hadder, Abbesand Sahraoui.
Location: Off Avenue Abou El Kacem Ech-Chabbi
Accommodation: Where to Stay in Tozeur
2 Medina (Ouled Hadef)
Tozeur’s medina (old town) is the main focal point of the city. Known as Ouled Hadef, this is the most atmospheric part of Tozeur. Jumble’s higgledy-piggledy alleys wander through the district, lined with traditional desert homes with beautiful, decorative brick facades with intricate patterns. The geometric brick designs of the houses are very similar to the age-old design motifs found on many Berber carpets. This Tozeur-style architecture is made of local kiln-fired clay or mud bricks and can also be found in neighboring desert towns. Often the upper floors of the houses extend across the street to merge with houses on the other side, forming covered bridges between households and providing residents with protection from the harsh sun.
Location: central Tozeur
3 Chott el Djerid
With an area of more than 7,000 square kilometers, the Chott el Djerid is the largest salt pan in the Sahara. In winter, when the rains have come, part of it has to be navigated by boat, but in summer it dries up almost completely, leaving the salt crust exposed with its bizarre patterns, which extend for kilometers to the horizon. Fata Morgana (mirages) are often observed here. It’s a popular day trip from Tozeur, and one not to be missed by photographers – the surreal landscape provides the perfect opportunity for otherworldly photos.
Location: southeast of Tozeur
4 Folk Museum
Housed in the Koubba from Sidi Bou Aissa, The small folk museum of Tozeur (Musée des Arts et Traditions Popculaires) houses a series of exhibitions and dioramas that explain the culture and daily life of traditional Tozeur households. Some of the dioramas themselves are a bit dirty, but the craftsmanship they display is carefully crafted. There are also quite eclectic collections of Roman columns and fragments of statues on display, as well as local crafts, furniture, coins, pottery, jewelry, bridal suits and Quranic inscriptions.
Address: Rue de Kairouan
5 Tozeur Town
Unlike many other Tunisian cities, the division between the old town and the new part of Tozeur is not marked. In the new town, the traditional geometric brick designs are still used on many of the buildings. The center of the new town is Place Ibn Chabbat, named after the 13th century imam, who established the water distribution system for the Tozeur Oasis. It is located on the flank of the square Shop hallbuilt during the French protectorate and dominated by the minaret of the Great mosque. The main streets running off the square are a shopper’s paradise, with dozens of shops selling local textiles and crafts.
Location: central Tozeur
6 Oases of Tamerza, Chebika and Midès
One of Tozeur’s most popular day trips is a trip to the three high-altitude oases of Chebika, Tamerza and Midès, which owe their fertile land to large underground water deposits extracted by a series of springs. The oases are reached by driving through the breathtaking hill country Djebel and Negueb (an offshoot of the Atlas Mountains). The scenery here alone is worth the trip.
Chebika was built on the site of a Roman military post called Ad Speculum and is a small village of stone and mud houses above the palm grove. The very picturesque and now abandoned old village is built into the hill behind it. Tamerza is located on the site of the Roman station of Ad Turres and was the bishop in the 6th century. Again, the old village is a walking gem of a place that deserves exploration. Midès is located directly on the Algerian border and on the edge of two 60 meter deep gorges, where the Roman fortress of Mades once stood.
Location: 48 kilometers northwest of Tozeur
7 El Hamma du Djerid
About nine kilometers north of Tozeur lies the oasis of El Hamma du Djérid, with four small villages (El Erg, Mhareb, Msaaba and Nemlut) and six hot springs. The oasis covers an area of approximately 700 hectares and contains 110,000 date palms. The hot springs Here they have been used for medicinal purposes since Roman times and have mineral deposits that are said to help people with skin conditions such as eczema. They’re a wonderfully relaxing place to soak up an afternoon, whether you’re there for medical reasons or not. For history fiends, the oasis is also home to the remains of a small Roman settlement.
Location: 9 kilometers north of Tozeur
8 Onk Jemel (Mos Espa)
Star Wars fans: take a deep breath now. In the desert, in the area known as Onk Jemel, near Tozeur, lies the abandoned film set of Mos Espa, surrounded by gigantic dunes. This is where Anakin Skywalker raced his first pod Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. It’s a bizarre place, with the domed houses left to slowly wither with age, and other atmospheric pieces from the film set left in place. You have to travel here by 4WD vehicles, which is an adventure in itself. Most Tozeur tour operators combine a visit here with a bit of dune riding to please tourists who aren’t so enamored with the site’s movie-buff status.
Location: 43 kilometers west of Tozeur
9 Zoo du Desert
Just outside the village Abbes is the small desert known as the Zoo du Désert and a small but interesting botanical garden called ” Paradise“Here you will see endemic desert animals and oasis plants including acacias, aloes, cacti, henna, hibiscus and pomegranate trees. There is a small cafe where you can taste “teas” made from different types of flowers in the area.
In the hamlet Abbes itself, is the marabout of the local holy man Sidi Ali Bou Lifa, topped by a mighty dome. In front of the marabout, which attracts a large number of pilgrims who come to pay their respects, is a large and much revered juju tree, said to have been planted by the holy man himself. From here it is possible to continue to the banks of the Chott el Djerid or to return to Tozeur via the hamlet of Sahraoui.
Location: 3 kilometers south of Tozeur
10 Bled el-Hader
The hamlet of Bled el Hader, just outside Tozeur, is believed to occupy the site of ancient Thuzuros. In the center of the village is the 11th century mosque from Sidi Bou Ali, the original minaret and mihrab still stand (the prayer hall is a modern addition). In the cemetery to the right of the mosque is the marabout of Ibn Chabbat, who created Tozeur’s water distribution system. A number of old houses are in the village, with handsome brick facades in the traditional style.
Location: Tozeur suburb
11 Belvedere
The best views of the Tozeur oasis are from the Belvedere viewpoint on Ras el Aioun (a boulder pile three kilometers west of the city on the edge of the oasis). From here there are panoramas over the city, the oasis and the surrounding desert. Come here at sunset to make the most of the views and enjoy some beautiful shots of the desert at dusk. If you’ve been busy with Sahara adventures in recent days, there are several hot springs in this area – a dip is the perfect antidote to sandy adventures.
Location: 3 kilometers west of Tozeur
History
Located between desert and steppe country, Tozeur must have historically been an important stage on the caravan route from the Sahara to the northeastern Mediterranean coast. The city is first mentioned in Roman times under the name Thuzuros as an important bastion in the defense of the southern border of the province of Africa. During the Christian period, Thuzuros continued to flourish. In the mid-7th century, the Arabs took the city after a long, hard battle. Under Arab rule, Tozeur enjoyed a long period of peace during which it became an important stage on the caravan routes as the ‘gateway to the desert’. The city flourished and became an important point on the North African slave trade, with a large slave market here. Many of the city’s current residents are the descendants of these black slaves (the Haratin).
The town’s heyday was in the 14th century, when it is believed to have had three times its current population. However, its wealth made it a target of increasingly frequent raids by the nomads and of oppressive taxation by the Ottoman authorities who then governed Tunisia. As a result, economic decline began in the 15th century, and in the following century it was visited by a devastating epidemic of cholera that killed half the population. So, when the French took Tozeur in 1881 without a fight, it was an insignificant little oasis village. It has subsequently been developed along modern, European lines, although retaining its traditional style of brick architecture.
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