Is it all only Desert?
Sloughis belong (besides Saluki, Azawakh and Afghan) to the group
of Oriental sighthounds. The Orient encloses the whole Arabic World,
from North Africa up to the South-west of Asia and is most of all
formed by the Islamic Religion.
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Tunisia may also look like this: green fields - Can
you see the palm-tree in the middle of the lower part
of the picture? |
Now we want to take a closer Look at the Regions of Origin
of the Sloughi in our "Sloughi World." That is why
we will introduce the Maghreb countries a little more precisely
in the following editions. Maghreb (= the country in the west,
where the sun sets) is a District within the Orient, that
is formed by the European - Mediterranean and the Arabic -
Oriental influence. The Maghreb countries are: Morocco , Algeria
and Tunisia. All three of them were once under French colonial
rule.
Tunisia - a country in North Africa, what does it look like
there geographically? First we imagine that the country must
be covered with a large desert?
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Just in Tunisia the exchange of Mediterranean and Saharanean influence
in an overlooking frame is particularly evident. It is located in
the change-over from the Mediterranean to the Arabic cultural sphere,
and is geographically looked at a Meditarranean humid northern region
with steppe and desert.
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A step region in the centre of Tunisia, shortly before
a sandstorm. |
The agrarian landscape in the humid coast-regions is very much
Mediterranean formed, but in the steppes and in the direction
to the Sahara, oasis' form the prospect. Another landscape-unity
forms the steppe-region, the western Haute-Steppe, situated
300-700 m above sea level. Beside it one can see the lowland
steppe (Basse Steppe) and the Sahel-Region at the eastcoast.
The climate in the highland-steppe is continental with relatively
chilly winters and a rainfall of 200 - 450 mm. Rolf Bächtiger
( el Djerid Sloughis - Switzerland) learned this this year also
on his Tunisia-journey. When he left his tent in the morning,
the desert around him was covered with hoar-frost! |
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Mountain-region - hard stony ground, that presumes big
and
strong paws of Sloughis |
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But there is less rainfall in the lowland-steppe. In the
north corn is grown and in the south where the ground is lighter
fruit-growing prevails. In the Sahel of Sousse you can find
olive-trees mainly. And then south of Gafsa the ecologically
dry Tunisia begins, trees and corngrowing are hardly possible.
Here the desert-steppes prevail which then turn over to desert.
The desert stretches as far as to the northern edge of the
"Schott el djerid" respectively the "Schott
el Fedjedij", large mostly dry salt-lakes.
Around the salt-lake of the "Schott el Djerid"
there are the most important Tunisian Sahara-Oasis'. Huge
date-palm-forests form this agrarian structure.
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Naturally - Sand as far as one can see. |
Dark-red soil |
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