Chott el Djerid is the largest salt lake in the Sahara Desert and located in Tunisia. It is inexplicably filled with abandoned structures, boats, buses, and other nearly-unidentifiable objects. A single road runs through this incredible, desolate landscape…
In the middle of the desert in Tunisia is a vast salt lake, with a surface area of more than 2,700 square miles.
There are a variety of objects abandoned in the dried up parts of the lake, although it’s not entirely clear who put them there or why.
Signage alongside the road reminds you where you are, which incidentally is not too far from the Algerian border. Obviously, I was compelled to go to Algeria (Algerie in French) right away, but you not supposed to cross overland as apparently it’s dangerous.
The landscape changes a dozen times in just a few minutes, from muddy to dry to so-dry-its-cracking, to wet to flowing rivers. Not to mention the bright white salt deposits.
It is both desolate and beautiful, if not a little disconcerting. A single road (P16) runs through Chott el Djerid. If you want to visit this wild place, you can either drive yourself or hire someone to take you out here from Tozeur or Douz.
I wasn’t really in the mood to drive solo through the extreme conditions of the desert in rural Tunisia, so I hired a driver in Douz. He, thankfully, did not kidnap nor murder me while we were out here, and even took a few photos for me.
