Plateau Tassili N 'Ajjer (Algeria)

Located in central Sahara, Eastern Central Algiers, this immense plateau (known as Hecbe called Tassili) is 72,000 km ² wide. With an average altitude of 1500m, this plateau ends with a steep cliff 500m high and gradually stretches 700km, like a natural rampart with only access to a few deep gorges.

Inside there is a network of canyons, sometimes with ponds and streams with water flows all year round and trees growing on both sides. In these oases live the Touareg settlers who settled here for a long time. Other places on the plateau are Ajjer Touareg nomads. Before droughts and the decline in plant resources, these people also tend to live in settlements thus posing threats to the delicate ecological balance.

Tassili N'Ajjer is famous for thousands of paintings and engravings that make it the largest prehistoric outdoor museum in the world. These Neolithic relics (6000 to 2000 BC) and many other traces speak of the presence of people here in a less arid time and with animals and plants richer.

This monument was also recorded in the World Heritage List in 1982 due to its cultural and natural values. This plan to manage the highland area Tassili N'Ajjer is receiving Unesco's help within the framework of the Convention.

Paintings and carvings on the cliff