Chott el Djerid ( ') also spelled ''Sciott Gerid'' and ''Shott el Jerid'', is a

chott In geology, a chott, shott, or shatt (; ) is a salt lake in Africa's Maghreb that stays dry for much of the year but receives some water in the winter. The elevation of a chott surface is controlled by the position of the water table and capil ...

, a large

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

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 liter). I ...

in southern

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. 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 15 and 25 meters (about 50 to 80 feet) above 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 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 fact that ea ...

ward inlet of the chott is also known as

Chott el Fejej In geology, a chott, shott, or shatt (; ) is a salt lake in Africa's Maghreb that stays dry for much of the year but receives some water in the winter. The elevation of a chott surface is controlled by the position of the water table and cap ...

. It is the largest salt pan of the

Sahara Desert The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

, 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 quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

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

solar radiation Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically p ...

, water evaporates from the lake. In summer Chott el Djerid is almost entirely dried up, and numerous fata morganas occur. It is situated at in the center-west of the country, between the cities of

Tozeur Tozeur (; ) 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 site of the ancient city and former bishopr ...

and

Kebili Kebili (, ) is a town in the south of Tunisia and one of the main cities in the Nefzaoua region. It is located in southern Tunisia near the Chott el Djerid salt lake. It is the capital of the Kebili Governorate. History Kebili is one of the o ...

. During

winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar 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. Dif ...

, small

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' 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 into which the ...

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

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, 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 of significant con ...

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 for surface area as high as 10,000 km². 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. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

irrigation scheme Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) 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 be ...

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 (landform), erg'' or "field of sand dunes" in the Sahara Desert. Situated for the most part in Sahara Desert, Saharan lowlands of northeast Geography of Algeria, Algeria, t ...

desert begins. The towns of

and

Douz Douz ( ') 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 has been calle ...

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 The species wa ...

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

Pink flamingos ''Pink Flamingos'' is a 1972 American surrealist independent black comedy film by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes '' Female Trouble'' (1974) and '' Desperate Living'' (1977). The f ...

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 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

ian moon

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

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

liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...

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 abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

and

ethane Ethane ( , ) is a naturally occurring Organic compound, organic chemical compound with chemical formula . At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is List of purification methods ...

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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

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 with waters from the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea. The goal of this unrealised project was to create an inlan ...

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 located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

French Tunisia The French protectorate of Tunisia (; '), officially the Regency of Tunis () and commonly referred to as simply French Tunisia, was established in 1881, during the French colonial empire era, and lasted until Tunisian independence in 1956. Th ...

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 media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' 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 In ancient Greece, deities were regarded as immortal, anthropomorphic, and powerful. They were conceived of as individual persons, rather than abstract concepts or notions, and were described as being similar to humans in appearance, albeit larg ...

dess

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

was born.

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

iv,180. Cf.

Lake Tritonis Lake Tritonis () was a large body of fresh water in North Africa that was described in many ancient texts. Classical-era Greek writers placed the lake in Ancient Libya. In details of the late myths and personal observations related by these hist ...

. The lake is the setting of Frank Heller's book ''The Thousand and Second Night, An Arabesque''. The book ''In The Desert'' by the German novelist

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He als ...

begins near the lake and describes a dangerous crossing attempt.

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