Arrr! Thar be pirates in Tabarka! These pirate galleons are used to take tourists out in the summer on the water for some recreational activities.
Part of the Tunisian fishing fleet designed for the open seas.
Looking across to the small Zone Touristique. Tabarka is trying to imitate the supposed success of places such as Hammamet and Sousse. The water is a chocolate brown from all of the erosion. Every time it rains, the water turns brown.
Walking along the access road on the landward side of the island a few hundred meters off the coast from Tabarka. Well, actually the French built a causeway out to the island just after World War II.
Looking back toward the causeway and Tabarka.
Giovanna wanted a picture with some Genoese ruins. She had to do a bit of work to get that shot.
The island is covered with old ruins from the former owners. The main attraction on the island is the Genoese fort. It was occupied by the Genoese from 1542 when Dragut, the famed and feared Muslim corsair, was captured and ransomed. His cohort, Khaired-Din Barbarossa, gave up the island to get his buddy back. The Genoese also secured the coral diving and harvesting rites to northern Tunisia. The Genoese mainly concerned themselves with coral and with acting as agents for ransoming slaves from Tunis. Back then, there was a healthy slave trade both coming up from Sub-Saharan Africa and from the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In 1741, the Genoese found themselves in need of agents when the island was finally taken by the Bey of Tunis. The old Genoese names still survive in the Tunis Medina today.
The door to the fort was unfortunately locked. Its supposed to be converted into a museum but it appears to still be some sort of a police station or military base.
Those guys are fishing for something.
The Needles, as they’re known locally. The promenade between Tabarka proper and the amphitheater where the international jazz festival is held every summer tunnels through the rocks to make it around the corner.
We decided to go out to the Zone Touristique to relax a bit and sit on the beach. Of course the beach was icy cold!
The beach was covered with winged black ants along the surf line.
looking out from the inside of the hotel we spent some time at.
Hotel Montana and Disco Montana. Not exactly what you’d expect to see in downtown Tabarka!
The view from our hotel room window. We stayed at the Hotel Novelty in downtown Tabarka. We made the trip during Ramadan so by this point we were very hungry!
Getting ready to go in the morning.
There are lots of unfinished buildings in Tabarka. There was a big push a few years back to tear down the old buildings and build new and “modern” ones. Tabarka is slowly losing its charm. For some reason, a lot of the construction looks to have stalled out back in 2001 or 2002.
This used to be a Roman cistern which was later modified and converted into a little fort which was used by Christian traders in the 12th century.
