Am I the only world traveler who had not heard of Tassili n'Ajjer until 2023? That's pretty humbling in light of my ongoing visits to ancient sites around the world, such as Easter Island and Gobekli Tepe. Tassili n'Ajjer is a 28,000 square mile national park in Algeria that holds one of the largest and most important sites of prehistoric rock art in the world. The 15,000 drawings and carved engravings on sandstone date back as early as 10,000 years ago, and perhaps older, to an era when the Sahara was a savanna habitat.
The Tassili n'Ajjer was declared a World Heritage Site in 1982 and a Biosphere Reserve in 1986. For many years the area was off limits to tourists due to political instability in the region. But now a few local tour outfits offer camping treks. Given the sensitivity of the fragile art, coupled with a demanding terrain, foreigners cannot enter Tassili n'Ajjer without a local Tuareg guide. The Tuaregs are semi-nomadic pastoralists, a sub-group of the indigenous Berber tribe inhabiting the Maghreb region of North Africa.
The Tassili n'Ajjer was declared a World Heritage Site in 1982 and a Biosphere Reserve in 1986. For many years the area was off limits to tourists due to political instability in the region. But now a few local tour outfits offer camping treks. Given the sensitivity of the fragile art, coupled with a demanding terrain, foreigners cannot enter Tassili n'Ajjer without a local Tuareg guide. The Tuaregs are semi-nomadic pastoralists, a sub-group of the indigenous Berber tribe inhabiting the Maghreb region of North Africa.
Algeria, bordered in red on the map above, is actually the largest country land-wise in Africa. Tassili n'Ajjer is but a speck located in the southeast (black circle on map) where Algeria borders Libya and Niger. One of our camp sites was only five kilometers from Libya. Even though Tassili n'Ajjer is deep in the Sahara Desert, our elevation was 5,600 feet high (1,700 meters ). That means it was cool during the day and COLD at night.
How Cat & I had 30 minutes to join the Tassili n'Ajjer tour
In early 2023, my twin sister Cat suggested we celebrate our annual April birthday exploring the rock art in Algeria, but we were confounded by the logistics to get there and couldn't readily find any tours. So we went to Tunisia instead and had a sensational five-day trek in the Sahara with the best tour operator in North Africa, Sahha Sahara.
Fast forward to November when Christos Lambris, the trail blazing cofounder of Trekking Hellas, let me join his scouting trip to Socotra island in Yemen. On November 16, as we waited to board the plane at Athens Airport, I mentioned that soon after Socotra I was going to Tunisia to trek in the Sahara Desert (this time with my Greek partner). Christos said he was going to trek in the Sahara in Algeria. I knew instantly. "You're going to see the rock art?!" He said yes. I asked the dates and realized that his trip started in Algiers December 10, the day I was supposed to leave Tunis for Athens. What if I flew Tunis to Algiers instead?
Our flight was boarding in 30 minutes. I had to make a snap decision right then because we would not have wifi for a week in Socotra and visas, airline tickets, etc. had to be arranged by Niki, his company's admin. I called Cat on WhatsApp who by sheer luck answered because she was on remote Corn Island in Nicaragua with limited wifi. Within 5-10 minutes we decided, YES! we would do this once in a lifetime trip and pray the Algerian visas would arrive on time. Christos later told me that he had told Niki that very morning that he wished the tour had two more people. Tah DAH! Our twin sister energy once again made magic happen!
Fast forward to November when Christos Lambris, the trail blazing cofounder of Trekking Hellas, let me join his scouting trip to Socotra island in Yemen. On November 16, as we waited to board the plane at Athens Airport, I mentioned that soon after Socotra I was going to Tunisia to trek in the Sahara Desert (this time with my Greek partner). Christos said he was going to trek in the Sahara in Algeria. I knew instantly. "You're going to see the rock art?!" He said yes. I asked the dates and realized that his trip started in Algiers December 10, the day I was supposed to leave Tunis for Athens. What if I flew Tunis to Algiers instead?
Our flight was boarding in 30 minutes. I had to make a snap decision right then because we would not have wifi for a week in Socotra and visas, airline tickets, etc. had to be arranged by Niki, his company's admin. I called Cat on WhatsApp who by sheer luck answered because she was on remote Corn Island in Nicaragua with limited wifi. Within 5-10 minutes we decided, YES! we would do this once in a lifetime trip and pray the Algerian visas would arrive on time. Christos later told me that he had told Niki that very morning that he wished the tour had two more people. Tah DAH! Our twin sister energy once again made magic happen!
From Algiers, how hard is it to get to Tassili n'Ajjer ?
Answer: On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a nine. First you have to get a visa to fly to Algeria. At the Algiers airport you likely have to have your visa re-issued for the right type needed for Djanet (the "D" is silent), the closest airport to Tassili n'Ajjer. It takes an hour or so for the military bureaucrats at customs to get that squared. The flight from Algiers to Djanet departs at 11:00 p.m., but you're not scheduled to arrive to Djanet until 3:15 a.m. due to a one-hour stop in Tamanrasset. All the passengers were exiting, so our group of 12 started to exit as well, unaware the flight was not direct. Fortunately other passengers somehow knew our agenda and told us Djanet is the next stop. Djanet is pretty much in the middle of nowhere surrounded by acres and acres of land. So it was puzzling why the airport is located a tiring 45-minute drive away. We didn't get settled into our hotel room until around 5:00 a.m. Basically, in terms of jet lag, getting to the gateway of the Sahara Desert from the country's capital is tantamount to taking an overseas flight.
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Now from Djanet, how hard is it to get to Tassili n'Ajjer?
Answer: again, on a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a nine. Leaving Djanet in jeeps we had a thrilling ride (30-sec video) to the trail head at Akba Tafilalet from where we began hiking up to the plateau. The donkeys that carried all our gear and food and their drivers awaited us. Our guide throughout the journey was Habib, a rugged Tuareg who I bet scoffs at foreigners navigating his Tassili stomping grounds with a GPS. He's 63 but ascended to the plateau with the agility of his 28-year-old translator Ibrahim. Getting up to the plateau is the hardest part, but not because of mileage or elevation. Look at the pictures above and glimpse these 15-second and 34-second videos.
You are scaling mounds of hefty soccer ball-size rubble where each stone taunts you as an ankle-twister. As someone who once broke both feet adventuring in Turkey, I had to concentrate on strategically navigating a gigantic obstacle course. There was a hint of a path, but it was hardly distinguishable from the rest of the threatening rocky debris. I recollect it took five hours to reach that first night's camp site. I was dismayed to find its grounds were strewn with scary baseball-size rubble -- I repeat scary -- making a head lamp at night as essential as a flashlight in a haunted house. You really have to be very fit to hike up to the plateau and apparently this is the only route. Once on top of the plateau, for the most part the hikes are quite doable: we averaged ten miles on foot a day. Nonetheless, there are many sections even still where the terrain forces you to stop talking to your fellow hikers and quit gawking at the surrounding beauty. I had to stay completely focused on every single step.
You are scaling mounds of hefty soccer ball-size rubble where each stone taunts you as an ankle-twister. As someone who once broke both feet adventuring in Turkey, I had to concentrate on strategically navigating a gigantic obstacle course. There was a hint of a path, but it was hardly distinguishable from the rest of the threatening rocky debris. I recollect it took five hours to reach that first night's camp site. I was dismayed to find its grounds were strewn with scary baseball-size rubble -- I repeat scary -- making a head lamp at night as essential as a flashlight in a haunted house. You really have to be very fit to hike up to the plateau and apparently this is the only route. Once on top of the plateau, for the most part the hikes are quite doable: we averaged ten miles on foot a day. Nonetheless, there are many sections even still where the terrain forces you to stop talking to your fellow hikers and quit gawking at the surrounding beauty. I had to stay completely focused on every single step.
The Tassili itinerary was divided between the rocky plateau and the sandy desert
The tour itinerary (December 10-22, 2023) was divided in two -- north of Djanet and south of Djanet. The first five nights were spent north of Djanet on the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau with exotic sounding regions like Tamrit, Tin Nezen, Tamalet, and Tan Ζoumaltek. Here lie the dazzling Sefar rock paintings whose mysterious images entrance the beholder. The plateau consists of boulders, cliffs, volcanic rock, and mostly gravely sand. On the sixth day we descended the plateau on that same rock-strewn route that is ground zero for a personal injury lawsuit. That evening we stayed at a hotel in Djanet. The next four nights were spent south of Djanet in classic Saharan sand dunes having the texture of talc that feels almost silky running through your fingers. We traversed this portion by a fleet of five jeeps. The sections of this website called The Plateau and The Sahara are devoted to photographs of these two territories. In so many ways the landscape is as spectacular as the rock art and thus deserves its own pages.