Ichkeul National Park

National park

Bizerte

Area: 126KM2
Protected: 1980

A shallow brackish lake and its marshes under the limestone bulk of Jebel Ichkeul, the last survivor of a chain of North African lakes that once drew wintering waterfowl from across Europe. Hundreds of thousands of ducks, geese, coots and flamingos use it in winter; an ecomuseum at the entrance explains the hydrology and the damage done by upstream dams.

Rules

A PERMIT IS NEEDED TO VISIT

PERMIT: No permit for the visitor entrance and the museum; guided group visits are usually cleared in advance with the DGF or the ANPE.
GUIDE: Not required. Park staff guide groups on request, and a guide helps for the bird hides and the hill paths.
FEE: About 5 TND, covering the park and the ecomuseum.
SEASON: Open all year. Waterbirds peak from November to February; the lake shrinks and turns saline in late summer.
RULES: Stay on the marked tracks around the lake shore and the Jebel; the reedbeds and the flooded margins are off limits to vehicles.

Good to know

Habitat: Brackish lake, seasonally flooded marsh, reedbeds and a limestone massif rising to 511 m
Wildlife: Wintering ducks, greylag geese, coots and greater flamingos; water buffalo, wild boar and porcupine on the Jebel
Status: UNESCO World Heritage Site and Ramsar site 213, both since 1980; on the World Heritage in Danger list from 1996 to 2006
Getting there: About 25 km southwest of Bizerte, near Tinja

Places inside

Photographs

Sources

Photos: Oussama lahiani (CC BY-SA 3.0), Anisbgs (CC BY-SA 3.0), Hamed gamaoun (CC BY-SA 3.0)

OpenStreetMap relation 8307763
UNESCO World Heritage: Ichkeul National Park
Ramsar Sites Information Service: Ichkeul
Wikipedia: Ichkeul National Park
Boundary from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).