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You enter Chenini going through brown valleys where little grows. Just when the mountain range is all around you, you're in front of the mountain where the still very vibrant village of Chenini lies. Going up, around the mountain you see this construction where mountain and human settlement represent one organism. The only thing that totally stands out is the white mosque, right in the middle, at the middle between two moderately elevated peeks.  
The setting of Chenini is 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.
First a cave has been used and enlarged, and then the house has been extended with a couple of rooms outside this. Above the village, a ksar 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 youn 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.

Chenini. Seven Sleepers

Chenini has a mystery yet to be solved: graves of large proportions, 5 meters long mounds, called Seven Sleepers. The explanation to this has so far not extended beyond legends of the people here, of which you find several versions.


The grave yard contains more than seven graves, and which ones are the seven is difficult to say. Next to the grave yard is a tiny mosque, with a bending 6 meters tall minaret. If you walk on from the mosque, along a foot path for 50 meters you'll see what kept a village that earlier was situated here, alive. Down from the mountain is a continuous stream of water, ticking into a basin filled with rubbish.

Walk from the mosque in main Chenini, or follow the piste from the main road before you turn the mountain of Chenini. Driving is possible, but fairly uncomfortable even in a 4WD.  

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