We drove to Tozeur, an oasis at the edge of the Sahara, to see an annular solar eclipse. It has the second largest palmeraie (palm tree "orchard") in Tunisia. The day before the eclipse, we went for a ride on the Lézard Rouge, a cute tourist train that goes through a gorge, and drove to some other small scenic mountain oases.

A characteristic decor element of Tozeur was patterns in the brick of its buildings.

Tozeur has several large monuments.

Dates hanging from a palm tree.

Some trompe l'oeil on the way into town.

A late-Ottoman era bey of Tunis had a private train which he used until there stopped being Ottomans and beys. That train has now been refurbished for the tourist trade as the Lézard Rouge. It travels up and down a small canyon leading to a phosphate mine once a day. The rest of the time, the rails are used for a Koyaanisqatsiesque rape of the landscape. Metlaoui, the origin of the Lézard Rouge, is about a half hour drive north from Tozeur. We took this train ride the day before the eclipse. Inside the train...

The Sedla Gorge. The train stopped a few places on the way up the gorge so we could take pictures. Ultimately it reached a huge phosphate mine, which explained why the track had been put there in the first place. The engine zipped around to the other end and took us back to where we started. Sights from the train...

The gorge next to Mides, a small oasis. The tour guide said that scenes from Star Wars and The English Patient were filmed in this gorge. More gorge shots...

A goat with beautiful horns in the oasis.

Windows in the old town of Tamerza and in the Tamerza Palace Hotel have the same shape. It rained for 22 days in 1969, completely destroying the mud houses which made up these oases: Tamerza, Mides, and Chebika. Each of them was rebuilt with modern construction nearby.

A stunning red dragonfly.

A detail from a wall in Tamerza.

A little waterfall near Tamerza attracted lots of tourists to jump into the pool below. The location of the waterfall is regarded as a valuable intellectual property by the people who make their living showing you where it is for a few dollars. Actually it's right by the road on the south entrance of town. (We'd come from the north.) We found it ourselves out of unwillingness to cooperate with that level of pettifoggery.

Sunset on the mountain.

The next day, October 3, 2005. When the sky is perfectly clear it becomes obvious why annular eclipses are ultimately pointless. There is no way that you will see them in any particularly dramatic setting, or take any particularly dramatic photo of them, because everything must be experienced through the solar filter which precludes context. Ergo, there is no reason to seek out any particular place for the experience. If, for all places, there is no reason to be at that place, then there is no reason to be there. Here are astronomers and photographers setting up at our hotel to see the eclipse. I suppose there are advantages to hanging out by the pool with Westerners, if not for that scantily-clad astronomers is a deep structure oxymoron. We drove into town so we could share it with the locals. Society offers an excuse for all.

The partially-eclipsed sun shining through a trash can with little holes is projected onto the sidewalk.

A similar effect.

This electrical technician hung out with us for most of the eclipse. We had two pairs of eclipse glasses which we passed around to as many people as possible -- only one of them disappeared. We were annoyed to discover that someone was selling completely unsafe blue-tinted-plastic goggles. With oil-based lube, no less.

The crescents are getting smaller...

The center of the eclipse. I guess you had to be there. A solar eclipse is the most pure form possible of the new moon -- this particular new moon was the one which would usher in Ramadan the following evening. For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of fasting while the sun is up.

After the eclipse, we walked around the old part of town, and found a little carpet factory. Unlike the stores on the main street, where salesmen would pretend to befriend us before trying to sell us carpet, there was one woman here who was available to answer questions and never tried to sell us anything. So we were more than happy to buy a couple pieces (small ones since we had to carry them for five more weeks). She was subtle.....I bet we overpaid totally.

On to Tataouine