Five and a half minutes over Sfax, Kerkennah and the Sahel
Totality begins at 10:08:50 and ends at 10:14:29 (local time, UTC+1). Maximum eclipse is at 10:11:39, with the sun 56° above the horizon. The partial phases run from 08:56 to 11:31. Figures are for Sfax. Tunisia keeps UTC+1 all year, one hour behind mainland Spain.
Tunisia is the easiest country on the whole path to combine a long totality with a normal beach holiday. Sfax and the Kerkennah Islands both get 5 minutes 39 seconds, Djerba 4 minutes 42 seconds, El Djem 4 minutes 23 seconds. The path crosses the middle of the country from Kasserine to the Gulf of Gabès, and it takes in the whole of the southern Sahel coast.
The catch is that the two big resort areas, Hammamet and Sousse, are just outside. Sousse reaches 99.88% and Monastir 99.93%, both agonisingly short of totality, while Sfax an hour and a half south goes fully dark for more than five and a half minutes.
At Sfax and on the Kerkennah Islands
The third largest Roman amphitheatre, 4 min 23 s
Djerba, Sfax, Monastir and Tunis all have airports
| City | Eclipse | Duration / coverage | Maximum | Sun altitude |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sfax | Total | 5 min 39 s | 10:11 | 56° |
| Kerkennah Islands | Total | 5 min 39 s | 10:12 | 57° |
| Sbeitla | Total | 5 min 16 s | 10:08 | 54° |
| Djerba (Houmt Souk) | Total | 4 min 42 s | 10:12 | 57° |
| El Djem | Total | 4 min 23 s | 10:11 | 56° |
| Gabès | Total | 4 min 06 s | 10:10 | 56° |
| Zarzis | Total | 2 min 53 s | 10:12 | 57° |
| Mahdia | Total | 2 min 48 s | 10:11 | 56° |
| Kairouan | Total | 2 min 41 s | 10:10 | 55° |
| Tozeur | Total | 1 min 46 s | 10:07 | 54° |
| Matmata | Partial | 99.99% | 10:10 | 56° |
| Monastir | Partial | 99.93% | 10:11 | 56° |
| Sousse | Partial | 99.88% | 10:11 | 56° |
| Medenine | Partial | 99.85% | 10:11 | 56° |
| Douz | Partial | 99.51% | 10:08 | 55° |
| Tataouine | Partial | 98.69% | 10:11 | 57° |
| Hammamet | Partial | 98.26% | 10:10 | 55° |
| Tunis | Partial | 97.07% | 10:10 | 55° |
| Bizerte | Partial | 95.47% | 10:09 | 54° |
Tunisian local time, UTC+1. Computed from JPL DE440s ephemerides.
Tunisia’s second city gets the maximum available in the country, 5 minutes 39 seconds. It has an airport, a walled medina and a working port. The Kerkennah Islands, an hour offshore by ferry, get exactly the same duration in a much quieter setting: flat, low islands with palm trees, fishing villages and almost no tourism. Sleep on the islands the night before rather than trying to catch the boat on eclipse morning.
4 minutes 23 seconds, and the setting is hard to beat: a Roman amphitheatre that seated 35,000 people, standing almost intact in the middle of a small town. This is the postcard image everyone will want from Tunisia on eclipse day, so expect it to be managed and ticketed.
4 minutes 42 seconds on an island with a large stock of hotels, an international airport and long beaches. Probably the single most practical eclipse holiday base in the country if you want the whole family accommodated.
5 minutes 16 seconds over the Roman city of Sufetula, with its three temples in a row. Inland, at 500 metres, drier and quieter than the coast.
1 minute 46 seconds only, because Tozeur sits near the southern limit, but it is the gateway to the Chott el Djerid and the desert oases. For duration, Douz and Matmata do worse still: both stay partial.
This matters, because these are exactly where package holidays go. Sousse reaches 99.88%, Monastir 99.93% and Hammamet 98.26%, and none of them sees totality. If you are booked into one of these resorts, plan a coach or a car south to Sfax or El Djem for the morning: it is around an hour and a half from Sousse to El Djem.
Visas: citizens of the EU, the UK, the United States, Canada and many other countries can enter without a visa for up to 90 days. Check the current rules for your nationality. See our visa notes.
Getting there: Tunis Carthage, Djerba Zarzis, Monastir Habib Bourguiba, Enfidha and Sfax all take international flights, and summer charter capacity into Djerba and Enfidha is large. Ferries run from Marseille, Genoa and Civitavecchia to Tunis.
Getting around: the A1 motorway runs from Tunis down the coast past Sousse and Sfax towards Gabès, which makes moving into the path straightforward. Trains link Tunis, Sousse, El Djem, Sfax and Gabès.
Weather: August in Tunisia is hot and reliably dry, with clear sky the overwhelming likelihood. Inland it will be well over 35 degrees by mid morning. See weather and cloud.