PlaceNames

NAMES OR CATEGORIES OF PLACES IN TUNISIA Terry King / Dorsaf Kouki 09/22/05 1.03 Tunisian Studies: Please email additional terms we should add!

AIN (AYN) - spring

BAB - gate or door BARBARY European term for North Africa in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries BARRAGE - Dam BERBERS Nomadic native inhabitants of Morocco, and still the majority of the population. Also in Tunisia. BIR - Well (Arabic) water hole; well BORJ - Fort, usually on top of hills, and facing the sea or any place from which enemies would come

CHOTT - Salt / dried lake, fed by rain in the winter, dried in the summer (like Chott jerid, between Tozeur and Douz) CIRQUE - A steep-walled horseshoe-shaped recess high on a mountain

DAR - house or palace

ERG - sand dune

FORET - Forest FOUM - Valley

GOUR - A hole or well in a river bed

HAMADET - Rock Desert HENCHIR - Plantation

JEBEL - Mountain. A DJEBALI is someone from the mountains

KAF (KEF) - Cliff KASBAH - Palace centre and/or fortress of an Arab town KSAR - Ksar / plu: Ksours: A ksar is a village made of combined storage/housing buildings once common among the oasis populations of the Maghreb (northern Africa.) Ksars are situated mostly on the peaks of small mountains to make defense easier. "Ksar" is dialectal Arabic in origin; the Berber equivalent of the word is agherm.

MAAHAL - (Arabic) encampment; group of tents MAGHREB - "West" in Arabic, used for the North African countries MEDINA - literally, "city", now used for the original Arab part of any town

OUED - Oued (in Tunisia) / Wadi (in the Middle East): river

PISTE - unsurfaced road or track, suitable for 4x4

RASS - (Arabic) head; peak; summit of mountain RIBAT - Fort

SALINES - Salt Area SAHEL - The Sahel (from Arabic sahil for shore or border) The border between the desert and arable land, the Ocean Shoreline SEBKHET - Salt Lake SIDI - Saint or Marabout. A holy man, and his place of burial. Tombs, usually whitewashed domes SOUR - rampart, usually around medinas (Islamic cities).

TELL - (Hebrew and Arabic) artificial hillock formed by the ruins of settlements, earth and sand that have accumulated over time THAMILA - (Arabic) water hole

WADI - (Arabic) river bed that is dry for a good part of the year