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Chenini

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Hillside rock village

chenini_village Chenini is the most visited of the mountain villages of southern Tunisia. There are mainly three of them, Douiret and Guermessa being the others. These villages are made up of cave houses built on the slopes of a mountain with a white mosque in the midst.
In mornings often large crowds of tourists explore the village. If you want a relaxed visit, do this in afternoons.

If it was a good morning, locals may let you explore without trying to get tip for every little service.
far more dramatic than you would expect from the nature in this part of Tunisia. In a steep hillside facing north, people have been building both inside and outside the mountain.
Above the village, a kalaat in bad shape is still used for storing grain, and the climate of the region makes the preservation process highly effective.
Chenini was until quite recently one of the few remaining places in Tunisia where true Berber language was still spoken. Today, knowledge of this remains, and the older women use it, but all younG people, girls and boys, use Arabic as their first language.
The whole village holds around 2-3000 inhabitants, and as is the case with Douiret, many have moved into the newer settlement 2 km down the road.

The village

You enter Chenini going through brown valleys where little grows. Just when the mountain range is all around you, you stand beneath the mountain where the vibrant village of Chenini lies.
While walking up, the unity of mountain and man dissolves and each house becomes clear. The only thing that totally stands out is the white mosque, positioned on a saddle between two moderately elevated peeks.
Among the most popular buildings to visit are the bakery and the ancient oil press.

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