Country Tunisia Capital Tozeur Time zone CET (UTC+01) Area 4,719 km² ISO 3166 code ISO 3166-2:TN | Created June 21, 1956 Area rank Ranked 11th of 24 Postal prefix xx Population 107,912 (2014) Team LPS Tozeur | |
Points of interest Dar Cherait Hotel, Chak Wak Parc, Eden Palm, CHRAYET, Desert Zoo | ||
Tozeur (Tunisian Arabic: توزر Tauzar) is the westernmost of the 24 governorates (provinces) of Tunisia and as such bordering Algeria. It covers an area of 4,719 km² and has a population of 107,912 (2014 census) making it the least populated province. The capital is Tozeur.
Contents
Map of Tozeur, Tunisia
Geography
The area is of low elevation, particularly its two large dry lakes occupying approximately 45% of its area. These are about a third of the Chott el Djerid, the country's largest inland body of water/salt pan and the Chott el Rhasa which has a small portion in Algeria. The lowest point is the bottom of the latter, 23 m below mean sea level. Tozeur and its airstrip are in the quite narrow strip of land between the two pans. Elevations reach above 200 m in the north east extreme being otherwise below 100 m. The uplands to the north attract variable winter and early spring relief precipitation and little other rain. The area exhibits a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) with long, extremely hot summers throughout (see North-south graduation of Tunisian climatic zones) — the patchy and infrequent rainfall in winter is greater than the average for the Sahara Desert of which the area forms part.
Transport
One of four arterial roads into Algeria passes through Tozeur along a north-east to south-west axis and the town of Gafsa, a provincial capital to the north before heading due east towards the port and coastal resort city of Sfax. The other roads of the province are marked as minor, one passing via a long causeway through the Chott el Djerid leading directly to Kebili, Matmata and Medenine.
Administrative divisions
The Tozeur Governorate is divided into five delegations and further divided into 36 sectors (imada). The delegations with populations from the 2004 and 2014 censuses, are listed below:
Five municipalities are in Tozeur Governorate: