The United Nations has added the Tunisian resort island of Djerba to its list of World Heritage Sites because of its ancient ruins, whitewashed villages, mosques, churches and synagogues.
The United Nations Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ratified the decision in Saudi Arabia on Monday, during its 45th world heritage committee meeting.
“The committee meeting of UNESCO member states has just approved the inscription on the World Heritage List of the island of Djerba,” the organisation’s regional director for the Maghreb, Eric Falt, said.
Djerba covers 514 square kilometres and is the largest island off North Africa. Its desert areas border the Mediterranean with agricultural land growing palm and olive trees.
Djerba is considered to be the mythological island in Homer’s “Odyssey” where Ulysses and his companions encounter the lotus eaters. It also featured in “Star Wars” as parts of the planet Tatooine.
UNESCO’s website says “the distinctive human settlement of Djerba demonstrates the way local people adapted their lifestyle to the conditions of their water-scarce natural environment.”
On Monday, Tunisia’s culture ministry welcomed what it called the “final acceptance” of Djerba, saying the UNESCO decision “does justice to the joint efforts” of both the authorities and civil society.
UNESCO’s Falt said there had been a “long and tortuous path” leading to Djerba’s inscription as a World Heritage Site because of “seven areas of the island and 24 monuments.”
The religiously diverse island also has Carthaginian and Roman ruins and also traditional houses known as “houch”, which have an interior courtyard and ingenious systems to collect rainwater.
Apart from its elaborate churches, and synagogues it hosts the Jewish Ghriba, the oldest in Africa, and fortified mosques from the Ibadi school of Islam, some of which are underground.
Falt said the last time a site in Tunisia was included on the UNESCO world heritage list was the Dougga archaeological site in 1997.
Nine Tunisian sites are now on the UNESCO World Heritage list, including the old towns – or medinas – of Tunis and Sousse, the town of Kairouan, Carthage and the El Jem amphitheatre.
In 2021, Djerba hosted the 18th Francophonie Summit, with Artists, intellectuals and stakeholders of the Tunisian, MENA and global cultural scene in attendance.