Chott el Djerid

Where is Chott el Djerid?

Countries on its shores: Tunisia.

Largest lake of: Tunisia.

Middle of the lake: 33.70° N, 8.43° E

The story behind it

Chott el Djerid stretches for about 200 to 250 kilometres and covers about 7 000 square kilometres – but its size changes with the seasons. It is the largest salt pan in the Sahara. A salt pan is a flat hollow where water collects, dries up and leaves a crust of salt behind. Less than 100 millimetres of rain fall here in a year, and in summer it can be as hot as 50 °C. Then the hot air above the salt plays tricks on the eyes: travellers see mirages, pictures of things far away that seem to float but are not really there. In winter, when the lake is full, you can even cross it by boat. Since 1979 a road on a raised bank has crossed the salt between the oasis towns of Tozeur and Kebili. Pink flamingos have nested on its shores, and film-makers shot scenes for Star Wars here. Chott el Djerid is the largest lake in Tunisia.

Find it on the globe

Chott el Djerid is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.