Chott el Djerid ( ar, شط الجريد ') also spelled ''Sciott Gerid'' and ''Shott el Jerid'', is a chott, a large

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...

in southern

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

. The name can be translated from the Arabic into English as "Lagoon of the Land of Palms".

Geography

The bottom of Chott el Djerid is located between 10 and 25 meters (about 30 to 80 feet) below sea level. The lake's width varies widely; at its narrowest point, it is only across, compared to its overall length of . At times, parts of it appear in various shades of white, green and purple. The narrow

east East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

ward inlet of the chott is also known as

Chott el Fejej Chott el Fejej, also known as Chott el Fedjedj and Chott el Fejaj, is a long, narrow inlet of the endorheic salt lake Chott el Djerid in southern Tunisia. History and geography The bottom of Chott el Fejej lies below sea level and runs in a narr ...

. It is the largest salt pan of the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

, with a surface area of over 7,000 km² (some sources state 5,000 km²). The site has a typical

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

. Due to the harsh climate with mean annual rainfall of below 100 mm and daytime

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...

s sometimes reaching 50 °C (122 °F) or more during summer with dense

solar radiation Solar irradiance is the power per unit area (surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument. Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre (W/m ...

, water evaporates from the lake. In summer Chott el Djerid is almost entirely dried up, and numerous fata morganas occur. Situated at 33 ° 42'N 8 ° 26'E in the center-west of the country, between the cities of

Tozeur Tozeur ( ar, توزر, ; ber, ⵜⵓⵣⴻⵔ, Tuzər) is a city in southwest Tunisia. The city is located northwest of Chott el Djerid, in between this Chott and the smaller Chott el Gharsa. It is the capital of Tozeur Governorate. It was the ...

and

Kebili Kebili ( ') is a town in the south of Tunisia and one of the main cities in the Nefzaoua region. It is located south of Tunisia. It is the capital of the Kebili Governorate. History Kebili is one of the oldest oases in Tunisia and North Afric ...

. During

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...

, small

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...

of water can be seen discharging into the lake. Because the

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ed area is very variable, values presented for the area of the lake (or its basin, which is almost always dry), can vary widely. Some sources provide values as high as 10,000 km². Similarly, figures given for altitude vary between 10 meters above and 25 meters below sea level. Currently,

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

irrigation scheme Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been develo ...

s are being applied in the region to help eliminate salt from soils and increase the productive area.

Surrounding area

South of Chott el Djerid, the

Grand Erg Oriental The Grand Erg Oriental (English: 'Great Eastern Sand Sea') is a large ''erg'' or "field of sand dunes" in the Sahara Desert. Situated for the most part in Saharan lowlands of northeast Algeria, the Grand Erg Oriental covers an area some 600 k ...

desert begins. The towns of

and

Douz Douz ( ar, دوز ') is a town in the Kebili Governorate in the south of Tunisia, known as the "gateway to the Sahara." By road it is located southwest of Blidet, southeast of Tozeur, and south of the Tunisian capital of Tunis. History It ha ...

are located south of the lake.

Access

The lake can be crossed by foot and even by car, but this is very dangerous since the salt crust is not always firm. During winter, when the lake is full, it can be crossed by boat. Piles of salt at its edges are collected for salt production processing.

Fauna

Relict populations of the

West African crocodile The West African crocodile, desert crocodile, or sacred crocodile (''Crocodylus suchus'') is a species of crocodile related to – and often confused with – the larger and more aggressive Nile crocodile (''C. niloticus''). Taxonomy Compared ...

persisted in the Chott el Djerid until the early 20th century.

Pink flamingos ''Pink Flamingos'' is a 1972 American film directed, written, produced, narrated, filmed, and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes ''Female Trouble'' (1974) and ''Desperate Livin ...

have been known to use the shores of the lake as nesting sites in springtime.

Namesakes

Chott el Djerid is the namesake of the Jerid Lacuna an

hydrocarbon lake on the

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

ian moon Titan. That lake is located at 66.7°N and 221°W and contains

liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

and

ethane Ethane ( , ) is an organic chemical compound with chemical formula . At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is isolated on an industrial scale from natural gas and as a petr ...

instead of water.

Flooding project

There has been a growing interest in permanently connecting the Chott el Djerid to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

to create a

Sahara Sea The Sahara Sea was the name of a hypothetical macro-engineering project which proposed flooding endorheic basins in the Sahara Desert with waters from the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea. The goal of this unrealized project was to create an ...

since the mid 2010s with the creation of the association Cooperation Road which in 2018 obtained the approval of the Tunisian government. A similar project was also considered in the 19th and 20th century by

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

French Tunisia The French protectorate of Tunisia (french: Protectorat français de Tunisie; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في تونس '), commonly referred to as simply French Tunisia, was established in 1881, during the French colonial Empire era, ...

In popular culture

Chott el Djerid was used as a filming location for the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' series, among others. It was also described in

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's last novel, '' Invasion of the Sea''. According to a legend, it was there that the

Greek god The following is a list of gods, goddesses, and many other divine and semi-divine figures from ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion. Immortals The Greeks created images of their deities for many purposes. A temple would house the ...

dess

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

was born.

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...

iv,180. Cf. Lake Tritonis. The lake is the setting of Frank Heller's book ''The Thousand and Second Night, An Arabesque''.

References

External links

*
Chott el Djerid at Lexicorient
{{Authority control Lakes of Tunisia Endorheic lakes of Africa Kebili Governorate Ramsar sites in Tunisia Salt flats