The Caretaker Minister of Environment, Nasser Yassin, announced the opening of the season for visiting the Palm Islands Nature Reserve, also known as Rabbits Island.
The reserve, which includes three uninhabited islands: Al-Nakhl Island, Sanani Island, and Ramkeen Island, is located about 5.5 km northwest of Tripoli and covers an area of about 417 hectares. Its sandy shoreline runs along the northern and eastern edges.
The island is believed to have been inhabited by the Phoenicians and other ancient civilizations, and it is an interesting place of rich history, home to endangered turtles and monk seals, and a resting and nesting site for migratory birds from Europe.
It has remains of a church built during the Crusades, in addition to an old freshwater well that has been restored and is used today to irrigate the island’s 300+ palm trees.
In 1995, the reserve was designated as a Mediterranean Specially Protected Area under the 1995 Barcelona Convention.
Yassin indicated on his Twitter account that the Palm Islands Nature Reserve is one of the few remaining habitats for the globally threatened green turtle, and a resting place for a large number of migratory birds, in addition to being rich in coastal plant life.
He added that on the regional and global level, the reserve was declared a “special reserve of Mediterranean importance”, and it was classified by the World Council of Birds as an important area for birds.”
To visit the Island, you may take a short boat ride from El-Mina in Tripoli.
