Tozeur

Tozeur lies in the Jerid oasis region of southwestern Tunisia, between the salt flats of Chott el Djerid and Chott el Gharsa. In the fourteenth century the traveller al-Tijani described it as the chief town of the Jerid, surrounded by a large palm grove supplied by springs. Water gathered outside the town and passed into channels whose shares were distributed according to established rights. Appointed overseers allocated irrigation by hours of the day and night. Al-Tijani also described houses among the palms, two Friday mosques and a bathhouse in the town. The oasis depended on the careful division of its water, while its gardens and settlement formed a centre in the desert-edge country.