Rochers Ekanassay Tadrart - Tassili
The Tassili is a vast sandstone plateau on which geological phenomena have left multiple traces.
Thus we can recognize the alternations of humid and arid episodes, the fossil wadi valleys, and the deep canyons contrasting with the current aridity.
We also discover, in a few hidden and privileged places, numerous plant and animal species, witnesses of a less dry past.
The plateau is home to ecosystems of great interest for science; they must be preserved at all costs.
The contrast is striking between the current extremely arid climate, this fauna and flora which tries to survive on the one hand, and the images so diverse and so lively and colorful, painted or engraved on the rocks on the other hand.
This place saw the flourishing and succession of numerous Saharan Neolithic and post-Neolithic civilizations over 5 to 6 millennia.
Their traces are visible on the walls in the hundreds, even thousands, of rock shelters, on the cliffs, on the slabs and rock blocks along the edges of the wadis, in front of and around the shelters.
These are extraordinary paintings where men, animals and especially magnificent herds of cattle are represented; they are still impressive engravings of a whole fauna now extinct in these latitudes, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, hippos; there are also quantities of objects, pottery, pearls, grinding instruments sculptures.
The Tassili offers landscapes of rare beauty shaped by erosion, a phenomenon modifying the reliefs producing very particular shapes.
It is an open-air archaeological site. It is a collection of rock art of unequaled richness anywhere in the world.
Thus we can recognize the alternations of humid and arid episodes, the fossil wadi valleys, and the deep canyons contrasting with the current aridity.
We also discover, in a few hidden and privileged places, numerous plant and animal species, witnesses of a less dry past.
The plateau is home to ecosystems of great interest for science; they must be preserved at all costs.
The contrast is striking between the current extremely arid climate, this fauna and flora which tries to survive on the one hand, and the images so diverse and so lively and colorful, painted or engraved on the rocks on the other hand.
This place saw the flourishing and succession of numerous Saharan Neolithic and post-Neolithic civilizations over 5 to 6 millennia.
Their traces are visible on the walls in the hundreds, even thousands, of rock shelters, on the cliffs, on the slabs and rock blocks along the edges of the wadis, in front of and around the shelters.
These are extraordinary paintings where men, animals and especially magnificent herds of cattle are represented; they are still impressive engravings of a whole fauna now extinct in these latitudes, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, hippos; there are also quantities of objects, pottery, pearls, grinding instruments sculptures.
The Tassili offers landscapes of rare beauty shaped by erosion, a phenomenon modifying the reliefs producing very particular shapes.
It is an open-air archaeological site. It is a collection of rock art of unequaled richness anywhere in the world.