libya sahara (44 images)

Libya - the mysterious desert

The Libyan Sahara is a dream. In the Fezzan area, close to Algeria's borders, streches a superb desert. From the Tassili of Maghidet to the djebel of Akakus, rambling in the country of the infinite.

The Tassili of Maghidet is a godforsaken hole as there is a few left on this planet. Except some moufflons hunters, Touaregs avoid passing in this natural fortress, nest of "djenoun" or evil geniuses. At dawn, you have to climb on...
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Libya - the mysterious desert

The Libyan Sahara is a dream. In the Fezzan area, close to Algeria's borders, streches a superb desert. From the Tassili of Maghidet to the djebel of Akakus, rambling in the country of the infinite.

The Tassili of Maghidet is a godforsaken hole as there is a few left on this planet. Except some moufflons hunters, Touaregs avoid passing in this natural fortress, nest of "djenoun" or evil geniuses. At dawn, you have to climb on a sandstone peak to discover this amazing rocky labyrinth streching on a pink sand crescent of 45 km long. We silently gaze at the shadow of thousands of turrets and rocky peaks which seem to be moving forward as tight battalions following the sun progression. We ramble in this rocks forest, fascinated by the phantasmagorical shapes, sculpted and destroyed by wind, sand and water. We follow a sandy crest until we strike against a bronze sandstone wall. "This tassili has not been very excavated", explains Ali, one of the first Touareg who brought visitors in Maghidet ten years ago. "We still can find arrowheads, fragments of potery, pieces of ostrich eggs..."

We are now joining back the Oubari erg in the east (in Libya, the dunes massifs are called "edeyen"). Streching on more than 160 miles to the north until the rocky tablelands of Al Hamrah, it is an ocean of impenetrable dunes only crossed by the "ghibli", a hot and dry wind that comes with the spring.
At the hottest hours of the day, the sun at its zenith blinds the dunes, the air starts vibrating, and mirages appear. But for once, the sparkling water that we see from the top of a sandhill is not the simple reflection of the sky on the white-hot ground, but a true lake festooned of palm-dates trees and reeds!
"There is about twenty salted lakes in the Oubari erg, precises Ali. Almost half of them remain full of water all year long. This one, called Gabraoun, is the largest."

Bivouac on the banks of the Oum el Ma lake (the mother of water in Arabic). A night-blue gem set in a green and gold jewelcase of palmtrees and sand. Serenity and plenitude as we admire the dunes of Oubari reflecting in the still waters. Palm-dates trees and reeds border the banks and shelter a few jackals, crows and white head wheatear, or "moula-moula", the Touaregs lucky charm bird. Sun is setting and we float like a cork in the waters of the lake. Rare moments in the heart of Sahara!

Hard to leave this oasis... Organised rambling of modern times where the four-wheelers have replaced the camel caravan which have now disappeared from the Libyan desert for a long time. In the south of Germa, it is again the Touareg country that ignores borders to join back all together the confines of Algeria, Tchad and Niger. In front of us, the Akakus djebel. This 120 miles long and 30 miles wide sandstone tableland is the continuation of the Tadrart massif in Algeria.
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