Oases of Chebika, Tamerza and Midès

An attractive excursion from Tozeur, through beautiful scenery, is into the hills of Djebel en Negueb (900m/2,950ft), an offshoot of the Atlas Mountains running from east to west. In this area, in which the Romans built a series of forts as the outworks of their defensive line, the Limes Tripolitanus, are the three little upland oases of Chebika, Tamerza and Midès. These oases owe their fertility to the numerous little mountain streams whose water seeps into the ground and to the ground-water which is tapped by wells of varying depth. The water is conveyed through a system of underwater channels at a gentle gradient to the cultivated land, water for private consumption being taken off on the way. Here as in other oases the three-stage system of planting is followed, with palms providing shade for fruit-trees (apricots, peaches, pomegranates, bananas, citrus fruits and olives), under which in turn are vegetables, tobacco and corn. Access

Leave Tozeur on the Gafsa road (GP 3), which traverses the oasis of El Hamma du Djerid (see below), and immediately beyond the oasis take a road on the left which runs northwest, crosses the Chott el Rharsa and comes to Chebika, beyond which are Tamerza and Midès. The road is an experience in itself. On the whole it presents no problems, though after a sandstorm stretches of the road may be blown away or interrupted by small sand-dunes.