"Tassili N'Ajjer National Park " a Tassili n'Ajjer National Park Travel Page by JLBG

I strongly advise visitors of this page to follow author's order. I have arranged almost all my tips under "things to do" in a chronological way that follows our camel trek.

This trek in the Tassili was organized by a small travel agency managed by several mountain guides from France that had chosen to live half of the year in the Sahara (Hoggar and Tassili) with the Tuaregs and like the Tuaregs.

This trek was performed in 1974 but almost everything I have written and shown on this page is still valid. I have updated the few information that was outdated.

For this trek, we were 6 friends in a group of 9 travelers, lead by Pierre, our French guide, fed by Ali, the local cook and 4 cameleers were in charge of the transport. Each cameleer took care of his own camels (“imnas”). There were around 15 camels for riding (tarik) and 5 camels for the luggage (“amagagou”). Pierre owned his own camel.

Each evening the amagagou were unloaded. Each of us could then get his bag (limited to 10 kg). The collective bags contained food, cooking devices, the polyurethane foam mattresses, tents in case of bad weather (we never used them during this trip). At the bivouac, bags were arranged as a circle to make the “dining room”. During dinner, we sat on the sand and the half empty bags were used as backs to lean against.

While Ali cooked dinner, each of us took one 2.5 cm mattress (only one!) and chose where he would sleep. Some stayed close to the “dining room", other went further, trying to stay away from anyone that would snooze!

At dinner, though only 7-8 PM, the night was already dark and a 9 PM, everybody was in his sleeping bag, sleeping or watching the stars.

Tassili N'Ajjer is a mountain range in the Sahara desert in southeast Algeria. It is also called “Tassili du Hoggar” or “Tassili des Ajjers” or only “Tassili” though the word means “plateau” in Arab. It is a 50-60 km wide strip that stretches almost 800 km long, North to South, in the middle of the Sahara. It is a sandstone high plateau (mean elevation, 1,000m). Erosion has carved it deeply, giving birth to a special type of landscape with narrow canyons and pinnacles and needles standing among sand, looking almost like the ruins of an ancient city. This has fed the legend of lost cities hidden in this labyrinth, such as the famous novel “l’Atlantide”, written by Pierre BENOIT.

Tuaregs of the Kel Ajjer band inhabit the massif. Thousands of rock paintings and rock carvings dating from the Neolithic have been discovered under rock shelters. In order to protect these jewels of mankind from improper behavior and theft it is now a National Park, the "Parc National du Tassili". It is run by the ONPT (Office National du Parc du Tassili)