Of all Tunisia, the South, the region that dips down towards the border with Libya and Algeria, is the most exciting and the most remote. It has long been this way: in the Middle Ages, Arab travellers avoided the region because the tribes were notorious for their lawlessness and banditry.

With their steep escarpments, the south's arid mountains are impressive in themselves, but even more striking are the ksour (ksar in the singular), the fortified communal granaries, and the mountain villages of Douiret, Chenini, and Guermessa that they hide. Strange and extraordinary as monuments, they are even more remarkable as living settlements in so barren a land.†

The ksar of Gourmessa with its houses practically disguised in the side of the mountain spur

†Apologies to Rough Guide for use of text without permission