Taghit Things to Do

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On top of the Grande Dune de Taghit, you have a magnificent landscape of the Grand Erg Occidental. The best time to view this landscape is either early morning or late afternoon. There are no roads and few camel trails that go a long way into the Grand Erg Occidental. However, it is possible to hire a guide and camels to make a round trip in the erg.

Climbing the dune is exhausting so, when you go down, you must do it as fun. Actually, this is not very different from ski at the turn of the century (of the XIXth!): there were no ski lifts and you had to climb for, let us say, one hour and then slide for two minutes! In the sand, this is almost the same. You can run down and go a fat as possible.

BTW, it is possible to ski on the dunes but skis are worn our very fast!

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These two photos (especially the second) show well how dunes are built. The sand is blown by the wind and goes up, up and up until it reaches the sif. At that point, just behind the sif, there is no wind and the sand, blown as a cloud, falls down. Thus the whole is moving with the wind but given the number of sand grains, though small dunes can move fast,it will take years and years when it is a large dune such as this one.

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If you look closely to thesqe two photos, you will see that the dunes are asymmetrical. This is because there is a wind that blows almost always from the same direction. The slope of the dune is rather mild windward. The edge of the dune is called in Arab "sif", which also means "sabre". It is acute as a sabre. The other side, where the grains of sand fall, is very steep. When you walk on a dune, you have better to walk windward, close to the sif. This is where the sand is the hardest and thus where it is the easiest to walk.

If you enlarge this photo, you will see that the parts where there is "living" sand (which means sand that move with the wind), nothing grows, while in the bottoms, bushes grow very well. They are mostly Tamarix (very close to the one we found in temperate climates close to the sea) and Drin (%Aristida pungens*), an excellent feed for camels.

Eucalyptus are trees that like a warm climate but they are not really desert trees. They grow only when they have plenty of water in the subsoil. The fact that this young Eucalyptus grow well tells very clearly that the water table is very close to the surface and that Eucalyptus roots reach it easily.

This photo offers the view from the Grande dune towards the south, showing the eastern part of the oasis. It shows clearly that Taghit is a valley oasis, opposed to "well" oasis that grow around one or several wells or to "spring" oasis such as Nefta or Tozeur, that grow around a group of springs.

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When in Taghit, climbing the “Grande dune" is a must. Actually, visitors to Taghit are visitors to the “Grande dune". As it is almost 300m high, you have better make it in the early morning, when it is still cool. Even early, it is already more than warm (April)! Bring water with you!