Kneiss

Kneiss (Arabic: أرخبيل الكنائس) is an archipelago of small Islands in the Gulf of Gabes, located a few kilometers offshore of Tunisia, about 50 km south of Sfax.

Their names come from the plural form of the word knissa ([Christian] "church" in Tunisian Arabic) as the central island still bears archeological remains that correspond to Cenae, the monastery where Fulgentius of Ruspe relocated around the years 503 to 505 AD[2],.

In the Middle age, on Catalan Portolan charts, such as those of Gabriel de Vallseca, what are today 3 islets appear as only one elongated island and the Kneiss are called Frixols.

[3] The vast expanse of mudflats (14,500 ha) and shallow water are an important bird habitat and are protected under the Ramsar convention.

[4] The offshore islands, along with the intertidal mudflats, the shoreline and the semi-desert grasslands of the adjacent mainland coast, have been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because they support significant populations of wintering waterbirds and resident passerines.