Djerba Essential: The El Ghriba Synagogue, Houmt Souk Medina, the Lotus Eaters Legend, the Guellala Pottery Village, and the Mediterranean Island Character
The Djerba essential circuit covers El Ghriba Synagogue as the oldest Jewish house of worship in the world, the Houmt Souk medina as the most complete island medina in Tunisia, the Odyssey Lotus Eaters legend, the Guellala pottery village, and the complete Djerba Mediterranean island character.
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El Ghriba Synagogue: The World Oldest Synagogue
El Ghriba (The Miraculous) on Djerba island, claimed to be the oldest single Jewish house of worship in the world (the foundation legend dates to 586 BC when Temple priests fled Jerusalem with a stone from Solomon Temple after the Babylonian conquest), houses the most ancient single Torah scroll in existence and hosts the most internationally diverse Jewish pilgrimage in Africa each May at the Lag Ba Omer festival when thousands of Tunisian and international Jews gather for the most emotionally significant single Jewish diaspora reunion in North Africa.
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Houmt Souk: The Djerba Island Medina
Houmt Souk (Quarter of the Souks), the main town of Djerba island, is the most atmospherically Mediterranean single Tunisian island town with the whitewashed fondouks (the former merchant lodges now converted to guesthouses), the fish market, and the Borj el-Kebir (the 15th century Ottoman coastal fortress). The Houmt Souk weekly Thursday market is the most socially animated single Djerba community event and the most authentic single island market in Tunisia.
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Lotus Eaters: The Homeric Island Identity
Djerba is the most widely accepted single identification of the island of the Lotus Eaters in Homer Odyssey where the sweet lotus fruit caused Odysseus crew to forget their desire to return home. The Djerba tourism industry embraces this identification as the most commercially useful single ancient literary reference and the myth that most perfectly describes the island soporific Mediterranean atmosphere of the most hedonistically pleasant single Tunisian destination.
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Guellala: The Pottery Village
Guellala on the southern Djerba coast has produced the most distinctively Djerba earthenware (the porous amphorae for olive oil and water storage) for 2,500 years. The Guellala Museum of Traditional Life and the working pottery workshops are the most educationally complete single Djerba craft experience and the most directly hands-on single Tunisian craft interaction available to the island visitor.
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Djerba Zone Touristique: The Mediterranean Beach Resort
The Djerba Zone Touristique is the most developed single Tunisian beach resort with the 70+ hotels on the 12-kilometer fine sand northeast coast beach providing the most comprehensively serviced single Tunisian beach holiday infrastructure. The Zone Touristique is the most internationally visited single Tunisian beach destination and the resort that most completely fulfills the European all-inclusive beach holiday expectation in Tunisia.
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Midoun Market: The Eastern Island Town
Midoun, the largest single Djerba market town on the eastern island, hosts the most commercially active single Djerba weekly Friday souk with fresh produce, Djerba silver jewelry (using the most elaborate single Berber-Jewish filigree technique), and handwoven Djerba cloth in the most authentic single Djerba rural market atmosphere away from the Zone Touristique tourist circuit.