Atlas Mountains
in Tunisia…
Hot and spicy: chilis drying in the streets of Tozeur.
I was wondering about the name of this spice. At first glance, it looks as though it was derived from the country Chile, especially, as variant (but correct) spellings are chili, chile and chiley (Pl. chilies, chiles, chileys, chil·lies).
Dictionary.com however states that the Spanish word “chile” was derived from Nahuatl “chilli”.
Nahuatl is the Aztec language - so this would point towards Mexico rather than Chile.
I found quite an interesting page on Chili peppers at an MSN group.
By the way, the sight of drying Chili peppers is nothing new to me, - I saw them in Southeast Asia, South and Central America, Egypt, Nepal… . Maybe the most unusual location was on the bow of a ship cruising the Yangtze River in China.
One of the most striking archtectural achievement in Northern Africa are the “Ksour” (plural of “Ksar”), fortified Berber strongholds consisting of many rooms called “ghorfas” used for storing grain.
The structures look so outlandish and bizarre that Geaorge Lucas used them as the backdrop for his planet Tataouine (actually a small city in Tunisia) in star Wars, home of Anakin Skywalker.
Although this colosseum very much looks like the one in Rome, it’s actually located in the Tunisian city of El Jem.
The contrast between the third largest amphi-theatre of Roman times and the smallish city below it couldn’t be greater.
This is one of the most spectacular train trips one can take: the historical “Lezard Rouge” (red lizard”) train travels through stony desert landscapes, mountains, gorges, but also stops at green oases.
The Lezard rouge used to serve the phosphate mines from Metaloui, but nowadays it is only a tourist attraction.
The ancient carriages are a sight themselves, but the main sight is the scenery the train passes through.
The train needs less than an hour for the distance and then returns the same way it has come - giving you a second opportunity to take pictures of the spots you missed the first time!
You can see landscapes like this from the train.
PS: I just had the opportunity to undertake two even more spectacular train journeys: from Cuzco to Machu Picchu in a moder panorama train and from Cuzco to Puno (near Titicaca lake) in the Inca Express.
this, however, is a different story and you’ll see some pictures from those trips soon on this site…
Pictures from Tunisia (Tozeur, Nafta, the great Salt Lake, Douz) are available at the country galleries:
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Travel Photo Net -
Travel Photography Online, by Laurenz Bobke
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