Djanet Travel Guide

 JLBG Says:  Enlarge the picture to fully admire the clothes of this high ranked Kel Ajjer. He does not seem to be one of the dancers, as he has not the Takounbout (helmet). However, he is fully closed in the traditional way of the Touaregs, with a gandoura and a tagelmoust colored with... 

 JLBG Says:  He should wear the traditional sandals called Tanba. It seems this is not an important part of the outfit as actually, this one, as well as the others, wears light walking shoes called in France "Pataugas", with a rubber sole and the top made of strong cloth. He holds his... 

 JLBG Says:  This picture shows a close up of a female musician. She has much less jewels than the previous and seems younger. The male dancer has an outfit that is worn only for celebrations. It has several stripes of dark blue, red and black that makes a cross on the chest. He wears a... 

 JLBG Says:  All the musicians and singers are women. None of them is veiled. That is something specific of the Touareg culture that women do not hide their face. Traditionally, the musician and singers belong to the same family and live in the hamlet of Azeluaz. 

 JLBG Says:  This picture is a close up of one of those Touareg woman musicians resting. The small drum is called "tindé". It is made of wood and a goat's skin. The woman holds several silver bracelets on her arms, heavy ear rings with several silver triangles and a huge golden pectoral... 

 JLBG Says:   Roger Frison-Roche, born in Paris in 1906, died in 2000. He was a mountain guide and a famous writer. He split his life between Chamonix and the Sahara and wrote about 30 novels, half on Chamonix and half on the Sahara. Many were big successes and several have been made as... 

 JLBG Says:  A guelta is a crack between two rocks with a waterproof bottom where water gathers each time there is a rain and stay for years, evaporating slowly. This is the water we are drinking when trekking in the Tassili N'ajjer (see my page, to come) 

 JLBG Says:  This picture shows clearly a Tassili very deeply carved by an oued. If you enlarge the picture, you will see that the surface of the plateau (Tassili) is also carved. This explains that Tassili N'Ajjer can be visited only by foot and on camel back. 

 JLBG Says:  This picture shows in the foreground a very eroded Hamada. There remain only low stripes of carved rocks. In the background, a reg. A reg is a huge area covered with gravels. It accounts for about half the surface of the Sahara. When the stones are larger (several cm to a... 

 JLBG Says:  This picture shows in the foreground a hamada that has been so deeply carved that there remain only a few spare rocks in the bed of a very wide oued.In the background, a high level hamada that forms a plateau, called a Tassili. Tassili n'Ajjer (Tassili of the Ajjer Touaregs)... 

 JLBG Says:  This picture shows a Hamada that has been deeply carved by water erosion. In the middle of the picture, an oued. An oued is the bed of a river, most of the time dry, and that has been filled by sand. On the left, another oued. When it rains, flash floods can occur very fast... 

 JLBG Says:  A Hamada is a huge rocky area, almost flat. It can be made either of limestone or of sandstone. This picture shows a hamada that has been very little carved by water erosion. Hamada account for about 20% of the total area of the Sahara. 

 JLBG Says:  An Erg is a huge sandy area where dunes, built by the wind can reach a height of 400 m. Dunes are always moving : sand grains are pushed by the wind and roll one over the other. Some move slowly, other faster. On this picture star shaped dunes are shown. They grow where... 

 JLBG Says:  The largest dry desert in the world in the Sahara desert (about 12 millions square kilometers). Flying over the Sahara towards Djanet allows viewing the various figures of the Sahara. The Erg is the most characteristic geological figure of the desert. It is how people think...