Medenine

Houmt Souk, Djerba's main town, shows a distinctive Andalusian architectural influence in its whitewashed buildings and arcaded central market — a legacy of the Andalusian Muslims and Jews who settled the island after the Reconquista. The covered souk at its centre remains a genuine working market rather than a purely tourist-facing one, selling fresh Mediterranean fish and produce that feed directly into the island's own cooking — the wider Tunisian food story this island puts a coastal spin on — alongside pottery and textiles. Borj El Kebir, the fortress guarding Houmt Souk's harbour, was built in the fifteenth century over an earlier Aragonese fortification and can be climbed for views over the port and the town's rooftops.

The El Ghriba synagogue in Erriadh anchors one of the oldest continuously present Jewish communities in Africa — local tradition traces the community's roots back over two millennia, though the current building dates to the 1920s. The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage each spring draws Tunisian-Jewish diaspora visitors, particularly from France and Israel, for one of the most distinctive annual religious gatherings on the island. The synagogue is open to visitors outside pilgrimage periods, with modest dress expected as at any active place of worship.

Erriadh, the same village that holds the El Ghriba synagogue, became the site of the Djerbahood project in 2014, when more than 250 street artists from around the world were invited to paint directly onto the village's whitewashed walls, doors and even rooftops. The result covers a genuinely large stretch of the village rather than a single curated block, and murals continue to be added and repainted, so the specific works a visitor sees shift year to year. Walking the village without a fixed route — following whichever alley looks most promising — is the standard, and most rewarding, way to see it.