Chebika : Tunisia's Nepal - Tunisia

Special feature Tunisia : Chebika : Tunisia's Nepal

Pieces of brightly-coloured fabric flutter in the wind. A jagged horizon reflects the rocky landscape and the few isolated houses melt into the mountain face. The landscape is crowned by a cobalt blue dome blurred by thin wispy clouds that spell letters in the sky. Chebika village could be the loft of the world's house, lying here at the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. From afar we can hardly make out the village; the hidden oasis is slumped along the river that slowly makes its bed in the mountains' rocky façade. Looking up close does not help to gage the age of the house ruins?it remains a mystery. Despite having been abandoned since 1969's torrential showers, they give the impression of having been here for centuries. This site has been inhabited since the Neolithic period and the stones tell of a tale before Man's presence. Fossilised shells adorn the mountain face, an underwater pool surfaces from beneath the Atlas Mountains ? a glinting piece of ocean dating back as far as 90 million years.

A bit of Morocco in Tamerza