Southern Ageria ~
The Tassili, Erg Admer and Hoggar

back to Algeria overview page
MAP

Southern Algeria is at the very heart of the Sahara and the Taissili Ajjer is its soul. This vast massif covers an area larger than France and encompasses the Tassili and Hoggar Mountains separated by the dunes of the Erg Admer. With a population of less than 40,000 persons, the Tassili Ajjer must be one of the most remote areas on earth. This was not always so and prolific rock art dating back over 8000 years is testament to a greener Sahara that supported vast herds of wildlife that were hunted by Neolithic tribal people. Throughout the Tassili are thousands of graceful figures appearing to float over a canvas of stone that has lasted millennia. Their organic colors were derived from mix of goat milk, ochre and the sap from acacias and are extremely fragile. Much of the Tassili rock art represents animistic beliefs while others appear to recount tales of hunts or invasions including those of the Garramantes. Experts speculate that these paintings may have been the pictographic precursors of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The rock art of the Tassili are now under government protection as part of the Tassili National Park.

Bisecting the Tassili and the Hoggar is the Erg Admer, a giant dunescape of sand towering above the desert floor. Here one gets almost an ethereal sense of floating in a space where earth and sky seem to blend seamlessly into one another. At sunrise and sunset, the almost impossible flowing lines of the dunes are strikingly outlined by black shadows contrasting the pale sunlight sands.

Further west are the magnificent mountains of the Hoggar that rise to almost 10,000' and which were formed during the Cambrian Period and before being uplifted by more recent vulcanization. Abrupt changes from heat to cold as well as naturally occurring acids left by microorganisms have defoliated the outer layers of the individual peaks often leaving only the black inner cores that rise straight up over 700' above the red sand desert floor. Legend has it that a Berber queen, Tin Hinan, came here from the Atlas Mountains in the 4th century and founded the Tuareg tribe near what is now Tamanrasset. Heinrich Barth also passed through the Hoggar in 1850 noting the beauty of the area and the ferocity of windstorms. However it was a French dilettante turned priest, who built a hermitage on the Assekrem next to Mt. Tahat in the early 1900's, whose writings brought these mountains to the attention of the world. Charles Foucauld described the surrounding mountains as more magnificent than any cathedral and believed that it was these that would bring him closer to God.

Lost Frontiers invites you to join us for our second year visiting this magnificent area to continue our explorations of the Tassili, Erg Admer and the Hoggar.

Itinerary:

Day 1-6
Tassili Plateau

Day 7-9
Tadras

Day 10
Djanet

Day 11-12
Erg Admer

Day 13-14
Tadant

Day 15
Tadant/ Tinagula

Day 16
Tinagula / Youffihakit

Day 17
Tamekrest

Day 18-19
Assekrem

Day 20-21
Tamanrasset

Level Of Difficulty
Moderate