Douiret - Tataouine, Tunisia
Posted by: 
Torgut
N 32° 52.060 E 010° 17.270
32S E 620487 N 3637351
Douiret is one of three ghost towns in Tatouine area, although there is a new Douiret, nearby, which is a "normal" small town.
Waymark Code: WM164J0
Location: Tunisia
Date Posted: 05/04/2022
Views: 0
Like the other Berber villages located in the region, it was provided with fortified granaries laid out above a troglodyte settlement.
Upon Tunisia's independence, President Bourguiba , in his plan to modernize the country, visited the region and persuaded the inhabitants to leave the troglodyte settlements and to come and settle in the newly created towns. Thus, in the 70s, the Berbers gradually abandoned their secular dwellings and moved the new town of Douiret and Tataouine.
Nowadays it's an atmospheric place, easy to reach by car and ready to be explored. It's on a hiking route which can be walked in different legs, connecting all these fascinating ghost towns.
From Wikipedia:
(
visit link)
"The ancestry of Douiret is believed to be traced back to a founding father with the name of Ghazi Ben Douaieb Bou Kenana, who migrated to the region more than 600 years ago – possibly coming from the Moroccan region of Tafilalet (Louis, A. 1975. Douiret: Étrange Cité Berbère. Societé Tunisienne de Diffusion, Tunis). In 1850, Douiret population was around 3500 inhabitants. It has been an important caravan stop between Gabès to the north and the Libyan city of Ghdamès to the south. In 1882, Douiret was chosen temporarily by colonial France as the center for its military administrative authority in the southern part of Tunisia before abandoning it in favor of Tataouine soon after that. In the 20th century, Douiret had seen its population progressively decrease as many of its inhabitants migrated mainly to the Tunisian capitol Tunis. By the close of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, the old village of Douiret has virtually transformed into a gost town in ruins as the few remaining families opted to move to the new village of Douiret built at the mountain foothills not far from their ancestors' historic site."