Best Sahara

Ounianga Serir is the southeastern group within the Lakes of Ounianga, a system of permanent lakes in the hyper-arid Ennedi region of northeastern Chad. Its lakes are generally smaller than those around Ounianga Kebir and are separated by dunes and areas of vegetation. The wider lake system was insc...

Djanet Oasis is a remote Algerian oasis town in Illizi Province near the Libyan border, serving as the gateway to Tassili n'Ajjer National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing thousands of prehistoric rock paintings.

Merzouga Oasis is a small Moroccan village in Errachidia Province on the edge of Erg Chebbi, one of Morocco's largest sand dune fields rising up to 150 meters, making it a prominent Saharan tourism destination.

Heinrich Barth was a nineteenth-century German geographer, linguist, and explorer whose travels produced extensive records of North and Central Africa. From 1850 to 1855 he crossed the Sahara and visited regions around Lake Chad and the Niger River while participating in a British-sponsored expediti...

Ghadames is an oasis town in western Libya near the borders with Algeria and Tunisia, historically situated on trans-Saharan trade routes. Its old town is noted for densely connected multistory houses built from mud, lime, and palm materials, with covered passageways that provide shade in the desert...

The Ennedi Massif is a vast sandstone plateau located in northeastern Chad within the Sahara Desert. It’s recognized by UNESCO for its exceptional geological formations and remarkably well-preserved prehistoric rock art dating back thousands of years. The area also contains a small population of des...

The Fezzan region of southwestern Libya contains extensive rock art spanning multiple periods from the Paleolithic through the Neolithic and later eras. Sites within and around the Tadrart Acacus mountain range feature engravings and paintings depicting now-extinct fauna such as giraffes, elephants,...

The Draa Valley oases form an irrigated corridor along the Draa River in southern Morocco, extending toward the Sahara through settlements, date palm groves, and cultivated plots. Water from the river and traditional irrigation systems supports agriculture in an otherwise arid region. The valley is...

Chinguetti Oasis is an ancient Mauritanian oasis city in Adrar Region, once a major gathering point for West African pilgrims journeying to Mecca and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 alongside three other ancient ksour.

Waw an Namus is a volcanic caldera in the central Libyan Sahara, surrounded by a broad field of dark basaltic material that contrasts sharply with the pale desert. Within the caldera are a volcanic cone, saline lakes, and areas of vegetation supported by groundwater. Its name is commonly translated...

The Ahaggar Massif, also known as the Hoggar Mountains, is a rugged highland region situated in the central Algerian Sahara. Composed primarily of ancient volcanic rock, the landscape features dramatic peaks, deep gorges, and lunar-like rock formations, with Mount Tahat reaching an elevation of 2,91...

Tozeur is an oasis city in southwestern Tunisia, situated north of the Chott el-Jerid salt lake near the Sahara. Its extensive palm groves are sustained by springs and a long-developed irrigation system, with date cultivation forming an important part of the local economy. The old quarter is disting...

The Hoggar Massif, also called the Ahaggar Mountains, is a highland region in southern Algeria within the central Sahara. It consists largely of ancient volcanic rocks, eroded peaks, plateaus, and dramatic rock formations; Mount Tahat, at roughly 2,900 metres, is Algeria's highest summit. The region...

Gilf Kebir is a large, remote sandstone plateau in southwestern Egypt, near the borders with Libya and Sudan in the Libyan Desert. Its cliffs, valleys, and surrounding dune fields contain archaeological sites and prehistoric rock art, including the Cave of Swimmers, documented for Europeans by Lászl...

Ouadane Oasis is a historic Mauritanian oasis town in Adrar Region, founded in the 12th century as a caravan crossroads for gold and salt trade, and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 among Mauritania's ancient cities.

Nefta is a town and oasis in southwestern Tunisia, near the Algerian border and the Chott el Djerid salt lake. Its historic economy and settlement developed around springs and extensive date-palm groves, while its religious importance is associated with Sufi traditions, mosques, and the tombs of loc...

Dakhla Oasis is a group of settlements and cultivated areas in Egypt's Western Desert, between the oases of Farafra and Kharga. Archaeological evidence records occupation across prehistoric, pharaonic, Roman, Christian, and Islamic periods, reflecting the oasis's long role as a habitable and agricul...

Oualata is a historic oasis town in southeastern Mauritania that developed as a Saharan caravan, religious, and scholarly center. Its compact settlement is distinguished by earthen architecture and houses decorated with painted geometric and vegetal designs, maintained especially through local women...

Timimoun Oasis is an Algerian oasis town in Adrar Province known as the 'Red Oasis' for its distinctive red-ochre architecture, built on a plateau overlooking a large sebkha (salt flat) in the western Sahara.

Ubari is an oasis town in the Fezzan region of southwestern Libya, near the dune fields of the Ubari Sand Sea. The surrounding desert contains saline lakes, including Gaberoun and Umm al-Maa, whose water and vegetation form sharply defined basins among high sand dunes; Lake Mandara is known to have...

Wadi El Natrun is a desert valley in northern Egypt, west of the Nile Delta, containing alkaline lakes rich in natron salts. Natron from the region was used in ancient Egyptian mummification and in other crafts and cleaning processes. The valley later became a major center of early Christian monasti...

Paul Sereno is an American paleontologist and professor at the University of Chicago. He is widely recognized for his extensive fieldwork in the Sahara Desert and South America, where his expeditions uncovered numerous important dinosaur fossils, including the early dinosaurs Eoraptor and Herrerasau...

Kharga Oasis is the largest of the principal oases in Egypt's Western Desert and the administrative center of New Valley Governorate. It lies along an ancient north-south route that connected the Nile Valley with settlements and trade networks farther into Africa. Its archaeological sites include th...

Taghit Oasis is a small Algerian oasis town in Béchar Province, situated at the foot of the Erg Occidental dune sea and recognized for its well-preserved ksar and prehistoric rock engravings in the surrounding cliffs.

A Tunisian oasis at the northern edge of the Grand Erg Oriental, widely known as the gateway to the Sahara and host of an annual international Sahara Festival celebrating desert heritage.

A fertile depression in Egypt's Western Desert, renowned for the Valley of the Golden Mummies discovered in 1996, which yielded thousands of Greco-Roman gilded mummies.

"The Fearful Void" is a 1974 travel book authored by the British writer and journalist Geoffrey Moorhouse. The narrative chronicles his physically demanding attempt to make a solo east-to-west crossing of the Sahara Desert, beginning in Mauritania and aiming for the Nile River. Traveling primarily b...

Egypt's smallest and most isolated Western Desert oasis, situated adjacent to the White Desert national park, known for its surreal eroded chalk-rock formations.

Tamanrasset Oasis is a city and the capital of Tamanrasset Province in southern Algeria, serving as the main urban center of the Tuareg Ahaggar region and a key stop on the trans-Saharan highway linking North and West Africa.