Chebika (الشبيكة) is a mountain

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

in western

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, in

Tozeur Governorate Tozeur ( ') is the westernmost of the 24 governorates (provinces) of Tunisia and as such bordering Algeria. It covers an area of 4,719 km2 and has a population of 107,912 (2014 census) making it the least populated province. The capital is To ...

Geography

Chebika lies at the foot of the mountains of the Djebel el Negueb and, because of its exposure to the sun, it is known as قصر الشمس ''Qasr el-Shams'' ("Palace of the Sun" in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

). As the crow flies, it is approximately 8km from the border with

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

History

In antiquity, it was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

outpost known as ''Ad Speculum'' and later a mountain refuge of the

Berber people , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber flag, Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , p ...

. Ad Speculum was ''

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

'' of the

Roman Province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

between 30 BC and 640 AD. Located on the Saharan limes just north of Ad Turres, it was a station on the road linking

Tébessa Tébessa or Tebessa ( ar, تبسة ''Tibissa'', ''Tbessa'' or ''Tibesti''), the classical Theveste, is the capital city of Tébessa Province region of northeastern Algeria. It hosts several historical landmarks, the most important one being the w ...

and Gafsa. The modern village of Chebika has several hundred residents. It was built near the old town, which was abandoned in 1969 after catastrophic flooding in which more than 400 people died. The site, writes Jean Duvignaud, "is located at the intersection of two projections of the mountain which opens here towards the desert".Jean Duvignaud, Chebika, sociological study, ed. (Gallimard, Paris, 1968) (). The urban framework consists of a

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogona ...

intersecting at the market place. Many scenes for the film '' The English Patient'' were shot in the Chebika oasis landscape. File:Chebika chute.jpg, Chebika Waterfall File:Valley in Chebika, Tozeur.jpg, Valley in Chebika Oasis File:Historic Village Chebika 02.jpg, View of Chebika Oasis File:Historic Village Chebika 01.jpg, Historic Village of Chebika File:Mineral Geode in Chebika, Tozeur 02.jpg, Natural Mineral Geodes in Chebika File:Mosque of Historic Village Chebika Tozeur.jpg, Ibadi Mosque in the old village of Chebika File:Chebika Oasis Tunisia 1.jpg, Looking from within Chebika oasis towards the entrance File:Chebika, Tozeur, Tunisia.jpg, Looking down on the village of Chebika

References

External links

* Populated places in Tozeur Governorate Communes of Tunisia Oases of Tunisia {{Tunisia-geo-stub