Les Aiguilles (the needles) is a formation of remarkable pinnacles of ochre-colored rock, situated just a short walk to the west along a seaside promenade of Tabarka. These distinctive rocks, about 20m high and eroded into bizarre shapes by wind and water, provide a popular photo setting for tourists. Facing Tabarka, at a distance of only 330 meters, is a small island where the Genoese family of the Lomellini, who had purchased the grant of coral fishing from the Ottoman Turks, maintained a garrison from 1540 to 1742. One can still see the ruins of the stronghold, a church and some Genoese buildings. Nationalist leader Habib Bourguiba, later to become president of post-independence Tunisia, was exiled here by the French colonial authorities in 1952.