Overview
Tassili n’Ajjer is a high sandstone plateau in Algeria’s far south-east, near Djanet — a landscape of wind-carved rock ‘forests’, canyons and dunes that doubles as one of the most important prehistoric art sites on earth. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982.
The rock art
Across the plateau are an estimated 15,000 engravings and paintings, some many thousands of years old. They record a green Sahara that once supported people, cattle, giraffes, elephants and hippos — a vivid, moving archive of climate change and human life over millennia. Alongside the art, the eroded sandstone scenery is otherworldly in its own right.
Practical
Tassili is deep-desert travel: visited from Djanet on organised trips with licensed guides, 4x4 vehicles and permits for the protected zones, usually combined with treks and nights in desert camps. The season is November to February, when temperatures are cool; summer is dangerously hot. It is the centrepiece of any serious Algerian Sahara journey.
