Douz
| Douz |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| administration | |||
| Country |
 Tunisia
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| Governorate | Kebili | ||
| Post Code | 4260 | ||
| Demographics | |||
| population | 27,060 pop (2004) | ||
| geography | |||
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| Coordinates | 33 ° 27 ' N , 9 ° 1' E | ||
Douz ( Arabic دوز, DMG Dūz ) is an oasis city in southern Tunisia with around 30,000 inhabitants.
It is located 30 kilometers south of Kebili in the Nefzaoua oasis area south of the Chott el Djerid salt lake . Due to its location on the edge of the Grand Erg Oriental , the city is known as the “Gateway to the Sahara ”.
Douz and the surrounding area is the center of the partly still semi-nomadic Mrazig tribe, who are said to have descended from the Beni Hilal . As the government has introduced sedentary programs, the number of nomads is decreasing from year to year.
In earlier times, Douz was an important stopping point on the Trans-Saharan caravan routes . The discontinuation of the caravan trade could be compensated by the expansion of tourism . Today there are guided camel tours for tourists . The Douz region has 320,000 overnight stays per year. The desert tourism is ecologically questionable because of the increased water consumption and the drying up of the oases.
In the modern town center of Douz, the largest weekly market in southern Tunisia takes place on Thursdays, where sedentary and nomadic buyers and sellers from the area, including some from Algeria, come together. In the past, even Tuaregs from southern Algeria moved their caravans to the market in Douz.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Institut National de la Statistique - Tunisie: Census 2004 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . ( french )
