Central Tunisia

This scene is an original illustration set in Central Tunisia. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is mediterranean — hot dry summers, wet winters.

Rows of silvery-green olive trees run in a loose grid across the midground and up the far slope. Red-ochre tilled earth shows between them. A low dry-stone field wall cuts diagonally through the foreground, and a small herd of goats browses along it. Every tree throws a long parallel shadow across the ground.

Why do olive groves only grow in this narrow climatic band?

Olives tolerate drought and poor soil but not hard frost, which puts this grove in a narrow climatic band around the Mediterranean and its dry margins. The wide spacing is a water strategy — each tree needs its own catchment. Dry-stone walls without mortar are what you build where stone is the surplus and timber is not. The long shadows place the hour late in the afternoon.

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