At the end of December the oasis town of Douz, the “gateway to the Sahara”, fills its great square with Bedouin tents, camel races, horsemen, folk poets and dance troupes from many countries for the International Festival of the Sahara.
Photo: McKay Savage, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tunisia’s entry in this atlas is the International Festival of the Sahara, held for four days each year at the end of December in Douz, a town of the Kebili Governorate in the south of the country, around 475 kilometres by road from Tunis.
المهرجان الدولي للصحراء بدوز
For four days at the end of December, Douz celebrates the life of the desert — camel races and fantasias on a vast sandy square ringed with Bedouin tents, hunting with sloughi hounds, Bedouin weddings, folk poetry and, at night, music and dance from across the Arab world and beyond.
December 2026Approximate window