Tunisia - 30 September 2010 (3)

Troglodyte Houses 

We passed through a village.  I knew it was there because I could see its name on a sign, but only one house was visible.  The rest were some of the famous troglodyte houses, built into the hills of the desert.  Many of these houses are now unoccupied and Lotfi said that only about 30 families still live in the old way.  Our next stop was to visit one of these families in another village.

Anna and Camel

Outside Oven

Not everything in the house was built underground.  The oven was outdoors beside the hill which had been excavated.  So was the outside loo.  While the others were listening to Lotfi’s explanation of how the oven worked, my attention was caught by a baby camel tethered in a hut nearby.  Anna, the lady who owned the house, held the camel for me to take photos.

View from Top of the Hill

We all climbed to the top of the hill from where we could look down into the inner courtyard of the house.  Anna’s widowed sister, who always seemed to be smiling, waved up at us.  She was making the tea.

Anna's Widowed Sister

We climbed back down and entered the building, making our way to the courtyard through a tunnel.  There was a cat just inside the courtyard and it soon made friends with Sue.  Refreshments were served: typical Berber bread and mint tea.  Vic must have liked the tea because he went round drinking the spare glasses.  We were allowed to look around, so explored all the rooms off the courtyard.  There was a kitchen with an electric stove, a store room and a few bedrooms.  There were not many furnishings, but enough to live in reasonable comfort.  Anna’s husband put in a brief appearance, but soon went out again.

Bedroom

Lotfi asked Anna about her family.  She had had ten children, but only five were still alive.  Their ages ranged from thirteen to thirty.  The thirty year old daughter was now married and lived away.  The others were all at school.

Anna and Anne Grinding the Barley

The main crop in the desert was barley.  Anna demonstrated how she used her mill to grind the seeds.  Heuly tried, but found it quite difficult.  Anne and Sue used their left hands and found it much easier, but it still would have been hard work to have to grind a whole batch of barley.  Anna also showed us the rugs she had made.  They were for sale, but none of us were tempted.  When we were at the top of the hill, we had noticed a store room halfway up the wall where things were kept well clear of rodents.  A rope hung down and Lotfi demonstrated how they climbed up to use the room.  The climb was also quite hard work.  As I looked up at the walls, I saw a couple of bird nests in some high niches.

Lotfi Climbing to the Storeroom

Terraces in the Desert

After saying goodbye, we got back on the bus and headed for a lookout point.  Although everything looked very dry and sandy, we could see the terracing which held the rainwater for as long as possible to give the crops time to grow.  There was no sign of the rain we had experienced in Kairouan.  We could see the sea in the distance.

The Desert