Jebil

Jebil National Park was established in 1994 in southern Tunisia, south of the Chott el Djerid, and at some 1,500 km² it is the largest in the country. It lies on the northern edge of the Grand Erg Oriental, the great sea of dunes that extends towards Algeria and Libya.

The landscape combines dune fields, regs or gravel plains, salt depressions and very sparse steppe vegetation, adapted to minimal and highly irregular rainfall. After exceptional rains the desert briefly turns green and ephemeral plants appear, a phenomenon that shapes the cycle of the wildlife.

Like Bou-Hedma, Jebil functions as a reintroduction area for the lost Saharan fauna: it holds populations of addax, the species most adapted to the deep desert and extinct in the wild across almost all its range, dama gazelle and dorcas gazelle, all from breeding programmes. The nocturnal fauna includes fennec fox and numerous specialised rodents and reptiles. The park forms part of the filming area of several films set in the desert, and its surroundings receive tourist visits from Douz, known as the gateway to the Sahara.