The Sahara Museum

The Sahara Museum, housed in an Andalusian-style room, is the latest of the Tunisian museums. Its foundation dates back to 1997.

If its name suggests that this space is devoted to this infinite and fascinating environment that is the Sahara, it is more accurate to consider it as being the reflection of the life (plant, animal and human) of a “corner” of the great Sahara caught between the Grand Erg Oriental and the southern edge of Chott el Jerid, in southwestern Tunisia.

This choice is not fortuitous insofar as this country constitutes the access door to the great South and that it constitutes, still today and to a certain extent, the last territory of nomadism in Tunisia. In this way, this environment and the population that inhabits it are well linked to the Sahara and participate in its civilization and its mystery.

The circuit developed for visiting this museum introduces the visitor to the physical environment and its natural components: vegetation and fauna; then he introduces to oasis and nomadic civilizations through the material supports of everyday life, the semantics of symbols and artistic expression as it manifests itself in the decoration of ceremonial objects (weavings, jewelry, etc.) or in tattoos now fallen into disuse.