Djerba being an island, you can go to it not only by plane or boat, but also by land. From Zarzis, a coastal town in Tunisia that represents the continental extension of Djerba, a seven-kilometer road leads into the sea following the same route as the ancient Roman road. It is currently a two-way asphalt belt that only ceases to be operational on days of heavy storms. Driving a car above the meekly blue sea produces a feeling of unexpected placidity. And in a few minutes we are in Al Kantara —in Arabic, The Bridge—, which, depending on how you look at it, is the beginning or the end of Djerba, an island that the Romans called Girba. The Sahara and the border with Libya are barely a couple of hundred kilometers apart. Until Tunis, the capital of the country, you have to cover about 580 kilometers by road.One hour if you go by plane.
Next to Al Kantara, the traveler can enjoy the silence in the musty hill where Menix sits, a Phoenician city converted today into an archaeological park with ceramic remains among the bushes, platforms with explanatory panels and a shed with columns and decapitated Roman statues. . Menix was an important Punic enclave thanks to the purple extracted from sea snails (murex).
Long before
Homer's
Odyssey
located here the island of the lotus eaters, a fantastic land for the lotus flower that produced the most pleasant oblivion. Greco-Latin authors, from Herodotus to Pliny the Elder, hinted that such an island would coincide with Djerba and the myth continued to run, although only a few oranges, dates and olives grow here. Nor is it that there is in Djerba one of those plaques in the style of "Ulysses was here" like the ones they put in hotels and restaurants after Hemingway.
Fortunately, marshes are abundant, limiting the expansion of tourist complexes, leaving flamingos with vast sea fields to peck at.
Not far away, inshore fishermen, with their colorful boats, still catch wild sea bream.
Which coexists in the hotel zone of Midoun with thalassotherapy, treatments with sea water, algae and mud.
There are always alternatives to the lounger.
Along with Menix you can see some of the activity of the descendants of the Berbers who came to populate Djerba from the banks of the Sahara.
They still retain their language and practice pottery, for example in the town of Guellala.
enlarge photo Domes of Fort Borj el Kebir, in Djerba (Tunisia).
nik wheeler getty images
The castles of Djerba, both from the Berber, Spanish and Ottoman times, also resist. The waves almost lick the stone feet of the Kastil, a fort with a Spanish name that has survived many vicissitudes of the island. Now it's gnawed and empty, but it allows for melancholic walks with no crowds in sight. And next to the fishing port of Houmt Souk, the island capital, the Borj El Kebir, the Big Castle, stands on the ruins of the Roman city of Girba. Strategic place that was used as a fortress by the expedition members of the Crown of Aragon. Ramón Muntaner, chronicler and combatant of the Catalan Company who fought against the Turks under Roger de Flor, became governor of Djerba between 1303 and 1315.On several occasions the Berber pirates seized Djerba and already in the days of Carlos V and Felipe II occupying forces were sent. This enclave was a piece of great value in the central Mediterranean, attached to the African continent, but difficult to preserve. "Los Gelves, mare, malo son de tomare," sang the Hispanic soldiers. They called Gelves to the territories in the hands of the Berbers, in what today are Tunisia and Libya.
From the battlements of the Big Castle - now known as El Ghanzi Moustapaha - there are good views of the Houmt Souk marina. In the same port, and near the amphitheater that has been built for festivals, a cement obelisk rises in the middle of a flower bed full of weeds. There is a plaque that recalls the location of the Tower of Skulls, Burj Al Rus. In 1561, the Spanish troops who had just conquered Djerba celebrated it on this beach when they were surprised and annihilated by the Turks of Dragut Pacha. With their skulls a tower was built about 10 meters high and 7 meters wide. And there it stood until the bey of Tunisia (governor of the Ottoman Empire in this country) ordered the macabre tower demolished in 1848 and the remains buried in the Christian cemetery.
Today Djerba is proud to have 365 mosques, one for each day of the year, but most of them, due to their small size, are not obvious, nor do they all have minarets.
Arabic is the majority of the current population and the dominant language.
The traveler can also direct his steps to know the Jewish community, which claims to be the oldest in Africa.
enlarge photo Detail of a window in Houmt Souk, capital of the island of Djerba (Tunisia).
Jannick Tessier Getty Images
A tradition dates back to the Jews of Djerba to those who migrated here after the destruction of Jerusalem's first temple, Solomon's, in 586 BC.
And, of course, many Djerba Jews consider themselves descendants of the exodus that followed the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70.
Sons of Sepharad
There is no shortage of those who are considered descendants of those expelled from Sepharad (Spain) by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. The current community of Djerba amounts to 1,100 members, according to Rabbi Haim Bitam, a man of short stature and a long white beard who lives in Hara Kabira, the Barrio Grande, of the Riyadh town, on the outskirts of the capital. Apart from her religious duties, she runs a tiny shop where she sells utensils and materials for jewelry. The community has influential businessmen on a national scale, such as René Trabelsi, Minister of Tourism and Crafts of the Republic of Tunisia until February 2020.
In Hara Kabira there are many small synagogues, but the main Jewish place of worship is in Hara Saguira or Barrio Chico. After passing a police check - there was an attack in 2002 with a truck that exploded in the vicinity - you enter a complex shaded by trees where there is an old hostel for pilgrims, and a unique Jewish temple, the Girba synagogue, which in this case it owes its name to a maiden to whom many miracles are attributed. The temple has a peaceful forest of bluish columns and almost all of its walls covered with tiles, in a style that may recall the times of Sepharad. The place, according to another tradition indicates, would contain the possible tomb of the holy maiden and of some ancient and eminent rabbi. For this reason, on the feast of La
g
Baomer, on the 33rd day after the Hebrew Passover, a great pilgrimage is held here with pilgrims from Israel and other parts of the world.
At the back of the synagogue you can see a wall full of votive offerings to thank healings and others.
Generally, they are plates made of silver or brass.
Anything goes against forgetfulness.
Luis Pancorbo is the author of 'Caviar, gods and oil. A return to the Caspian Sea… '(Renaissance publishing house).
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