Ichkeul National Park

Ichkeul National Park (French: Parc national d'Ichkeul) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Tunisia, Tunisia, located in the commune of Tinja.

History
The park was a game reserve during the reign of the Hafsides dynasty in the 13th century and then became the property of the public domain in the early 20th century.

The park has been a biosphere reserve since 1977 and has been a world heritage site in Tunisia since 1980. Between 1996 and 2006 it was included among those in danger, in fact the site was threatened by the construction of dams on the rivers upstream. which increase the salinity of the water disturbing the ecosystem. Tunisian authorities have ended the agricultural use of the lake's waters, reducing salinity and allowing many bird species to return to the park removing the park from the World Heritage List in Danger.

Landscape
The park covers a rectangular area of 11.4 by 20 kilometres and rises around Lake Ichkeul, located near the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

The lake has the particularity of being fed by six wadis in fresh water during the winter and being connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Bizerte lake (in the Tinja channel) during the summer, which significantly increases the salinity of the waters and is the last vestige of a chain of lakes that once stretched across North Africa.

Flora and fauna
Lake Ichkeul and the park's marshes are a major landing place for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds each year. Among the "guests" of the lake include ducks, geese, storks and pink flamingos.

The dams built on the tributaries have caused severe changes in the ecological balance of the lake and marshes. The dams have markedly reduced the flow of water into the lakes and other pools of fresh water, causing the patches of ciperaceae to give way to plants more accustomed to salt water. These changes have limited the influx of migratory birds due to the limited availability of plants.

Get in

 * From Bizerte, take the RN 11, south-west towards Mateur. After crossing Tinja the road cuts the railway. The national park entrance is on the right, 50 metres further.
 * From Tunis, take the RN 7 road to Mateur. Then turn right onto the RN 11 heading north towards Bizerte. The entrance to the national park is 50 metres before crossing the Mateur-Tinja railway.