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