Tunisian salt lakes
The Tunisian salt lakes are a series of lakes in central
Geography
These salt lakes stretch with only two short breaks in a line from the
During the winter, however, when the effect of the rare winter rains is felt, there may actually be 3 or 4 ft. of water in these shats, which by liquefying the mud makes them perfectly impassable. Otherwise, for about seven months of the year they can be crossed on foot or on horseback. It would seem probable that at one time these shats (at any rate the Shat el Jerid) were an inlet of the Mediterranean, which by the elevation of a narrow strip of land on the Gulf of Gabès has been cut off from them. It is, however, a region of past volcanic activity, and these salt depressions may be due to that cause. Man is probably the principal agent at the present day in causing these shats to be without water. All around these salt lakes there are numerous springs, gushing from the sandy hillocks. Almost all these springs are at a very hot temperature, often at boiling point. Some of them are charged with salt, others are perfectly fresh and sweet, though boiling hot. So abundant is their volume that in several places they form actual ever-flowing rivers. Only for the intervention of man these rivers would at all times find their way into the adjoining depressions, which they would maintain as lakes of water. But for a long period past the freshwater streams (which predominate) have been used for irrigation to such a degree that very little of the precious water is allowed to run to waste into the lake basins; so that these latter receive only a few salt streams, which deposit on their surface the salt they contain and then evaporate. This abundant supply of fresh warm water maintains oases of extraordinary luxuriance in a country where rain falls very rarely. Perennial streams of the description referred to are found between the Algerian frontier and Gabès on the coast. The town at Gabès itself is on the fringe of a splendid oasis, which is maintained by the water of an ever-running stream emptying itself into the sea at Gabès after a course of not more than 20 miles.[1]
All this region round the shats has been called the "Jerid" from the time of the
The narrow sandy ridge separating the Chott el Fejej from the Mediterranean Sea brought it to the attention of various geographers, engineers and diplomats. These figures looked to create an inland "
See also
References
- ^ a b c public domain: Johnston, Harry (1911). "Tunisia". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 394. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Plummer, Harry Chapin (1913). "A Sea in the Sahara". National Waterways: A Magazine of Transportation. 1 (2). National Rivers and Harbors Congress: 131–138. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
- ISBN 3642228712. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
- JSTOR 209775.
- ISBN 1845378644. Retrieved 16 December 2012.