Clustered around the market place , the town of Tozeur with its typical minarets protruding out into a clear sky has an oasis which shelters some 20 villages . Several springs converge at Ras-el Aioum to from a veritable river that an irrigation system devised by the region's famous mathematician - Ibn Chabbat distributes through irrigation channels . In Tozeur you can admire the lush vegetation which extends a canopy of greenery through places which are penetrable by the sun .

Do not miss the Zoo in the desert which is the only one of its Kind where you can see the fennic rub shoulders with the tame lion strolling around amongst us . You will scare the salamanders and will be initiated to the way scorpions and other desert vipers live . Do not leave Tozeur without taking with you some of the famous " pink sand " which is collected by nomads in the desert and do admire the ancestral techniques of austere craftsmanship of wool covers , camel hair capes and basket made of palm fibres .

If you want to experience a bit of paradise with your own eyes then visit Nefta - so goes a saying from the South . Ancient Nefta is an attractive oasis with 1000 springs , its 200 " Koubas " (monuments) , its minarets and its sumptuous baskets as well as its many mosques which have gained it the name " little Koufa " or the " Kairouan of the Desert " . Situated a few Kilometres from Tozeur , on the edge of a plateau denuded and eroded by sandstorms where quartz and silica form under the sun , Nefta spreads out majestically in its green box . From far " the pearl of jerid " looks like a carpet which the angels carelessly left behind on the desert sand one summer's evening . Men listen to time passing by-time distilled by the clepsydra of life turning into the shepherds of the stars . Here at night , the clusters of stars seem so near that one feels like gathering them together . the town is terraced on the banks of a river . You will stop in front of a Marabout

If one thinks of the Sahara one conjures up pictures of amazing dunes , a vast sea of gilded sand , the muffled footsteps of camels in the silence of the Great Erg . But the Sahara is much more than this it is Berber villages clinging to steep mountain sides , ksars hewn out of the very rock , cave dwelling such as those at Matmata … Vastness and variety are the keynotes of life in the Sahara . Further to the South , the horizon melts away into the immense desert of dunes and mirages . Any explorer will be thrilled by the breathtaking charm of the fabulous scenery . Anyone who visits Tunisia and doesn't take the opportunity to visit Matmata will miss seeing a type of architecture which is unique-cave dwelling . Matmata , made up of several villages , takes its name from the Berber tribes who have taken refuge in this isolated region . In fact , every crater is a houses.

* Source National Office of Tunisian Tourism