Djerba is a flat island, stuffed with palm trees, but devoid of rivers. After Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Norman, Italians, French, Spanish and the pirates, the last invaders of the island are the tourists who annex in force the big hotels gathered on the north-eastern coast. Tourism became the principal activity, before the fishing, the farming, the pottery and the weaving of wool.