Djerba is an island of southeastern Tunisia in the Gulf of Gabès, connected to the mainland by a Roman causeway and by ferry. It is the largest island of north Africa, with a flat, sand-covered limestone platform that rises only a few metres above sea level and supports olive groves, palm groves, and Mediterranean cereal cultivation.
The island carries one of the longest continuously documented populations in the Mediterranean. Greek and Latin sources identified it as the Lotophagis of the Odyssey; the Roman city of Meninx was the regional capital. Djerba became a centre of Ibadi Islam from the eighth century, with a distinct theology, customary law, and architectural tradition closely related to the Mozabite sphere of the Algerian Sahara.
A small but persistent Berber-speaking population in the south of the island — concentrated around Guellala, Sedouikech, and Ajim — has preserved the eastern Tamazight variety conventionally called Djerbi. Speaker numbers are estimated in the low tens of thousands and declining; daily speech among younger generations is overwhelmingly Tunisian Arabic.
Djerba's distinctive architecture of whitewashed cubic houses, fortified mosques (jamaa), and underground oil presses (maâsra) is the subject of a UNESCO World Heritage inscription completed in 2023 as "Djerba: testimony to a settlement pattern in an island territory." The island also retains one of the oldest Jewish communities in north Africa, with the El Ghriba synagogue at Hara Seghira a continuing pilgrimage destination.