Several hundred Jews participated in the annual pilgrimage to the synagogue of Ghriba on the Tunisian island of Djerba, despite an Israeli warning of possible terror attacks.
During two days, Jewish pilgrims prayed and lit candles at the synagogue, the oldest in Africa, and wrote wishes on eggs which they left inside the building in line with an age old ritual.
The two-day pilgrimage took place during the Jewish festival of Lag Ba'Omer pilgrimage .
Israel last week warned Israelis and Jews around the world against traveling to Tunisia which rejected the travel warning, saying that there had not been any terror alert.
A terrorist attack on a museum in Tunis in March left 21 foreign tourists and a Tunisian policeman dead.
Security was tight in Djerba for the Ghriba pilgrimage with several police checkpoints erected on the access routes to the synagogue.
But participation in the pilgrimage fell since 2002, when 21 people were killed in a terrorist attack on visitors to the synagogue. Some 8,000 people participated in the year before the attack.
There were an estimated 100,000 Jews in Tunisia when the country gained independence from France in 1956, but the number has since dwindled to around 1,500. Many Tunisian Jews left the country for France, Israel and several other countries around the world.
The Ghriba synagogue is believed to have been founded in 586 BCE by Jews fleeing the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.
Pilgrims also visit the tombs of famous rabbis on Djerba island, where one of the last Jewish communities in the Arab world still lives.