Oh, wow Andrasz,

I searched this paintings on the plateau of N'Ajjer for several days a few years ago (without guide), found some - but your photos are fantastic - Thank you very much for sharing.

Greetings
Ferdi

Most guides will only know the classic Lhote sites on the main tourist trails of Tamrit-Sefar and the Tadjelahine. To find the more recent discoveries (which are often in much better condition, thanks to not being subject to any moistening, a devastating practice first propagated by the Abbe Breuil and taken on by Lhote and others) one needs to dwell deep into various obscure publications, then go look for them with varying success. A good case point is the beautiful site of Tissebouk, which is just 50 metres off the Djanet-Illizi road, yet nobody knows about it (may it stay for long like that).

http://www.fjexpeditions.com/expedit.../P0408_lds.jpg

(Image processed with DStretch LDS filter)

Very amazing!
How is possible that nobody knew this picture?
Have you seen it?
RR.

It was first published in the late nineteen seventies by Jürgen Kunz, a German researcher, and the article is in a rather obscure journal, only available in German (which cuts off all Algerian and most French from accessing immediately). The location information was very vague, it took me 3 years to find it, only succeeded after establishing contact with Jürgen who is now in his eighties but is still active, he last visited the central Tassili last spring.

Yes Andrasz,
it will be better to do not give exactly informations of the location of this nice places and paintings. Go further on!
Thank you again.
Ferdi

Jil Voyages vs Tinariwen Tours
 

This is an example how big algerian tour operator from the North (Jil Voyages) promote themselves by using photos of Touareg based Tinariwen Tours from Djanet.

https://www.facebook.com/jilvoyages/...66763243411069

P.S. I contacted Tinariwen Tours and they said that they do not work with Jil Voyages.

A 'Dakar' type event proposed by ASO - and even a TdF stage (ASO also run that).

2018, the year when tourism will take off in Algeria?

...It remains to be seen whether the Algerian authorities will seize the opportunities that come their way this year. In a context of declining hydrocarbon revenues, tourism could be a good source of income diversification. But reviving tourism will not be easy. Algeria is sorely lacking in tourist infrastructure and administrative obstacles remain numerous: difficulty to obtain visas, expensive air transport ...

Just back from the Illizi/Djanet area:

• Foreign vehicles require gendarmerie escorts border to border, but they may lose interest as you get south and said not be apply in the west (Bechar wilaya). The inter-district change-overs can be instant or can take hours. One group out of Algiers in 2017 took a week to get to Ghardaia; Taleb Larbi (El Oued) escorts relatively normal and swift.

• Planes leave Algiers for Illizi and Djanet early in the morning which means an overnight stay in Algiers. The Ibis (free shuttle on the hour; 10-15 mins) is 80 euro. At Arrivals money changers will find you: €1=19d, maybe 20. So diesel (below; Djanet in town) works out at 10p/litre and UNL less than twice that.

• Checkpoints down south have been largely dropped I was told; they usually know you're coming and with a gendarmerie escort you sail through on blue lights.

• Illizi province may be open for off-roading (with agency guide of course), but not all of it (map below - bigger version) and much of it is largely undriveable Fadnoun/Tassili plateau.

• Tassili rock art plateau was closed and we saw only a couple of tourists in Djanet and a 3-car group in Tadrart.

More info here

Hi Chris,

I have some questions......:innocent:
"Taleb Larbi (El Oued) escorts relatively normal and swift."
If I understand well , you were with your bikes, and it means you were escorted by a green/white gendarmerie car, that is?
Were you escorted by this car until Djanet or only El Oued?
And if you were with your car, it is the same or only the guide with you?
Which Agency have you took for this trip?
About the map, can you tell how far west from Zaouatenlaz it's possible to go:
Until Thiodaine? And what about Graveyard piste?
Sorry for all these questions

RR.

Hi Ro, our bikes were on a trailer. We flew in to Illizi a couple of days later. (Fyi, this was not my tour but one I helped fill).
The truck (with agency guide sitting in it) was escorted as far as halfway down Gassi Touil - then they let them go, but all points ahead were expecting them.
It is a series of escorts which change at each district - that is what can slow things down, but on this occasion the changeovers were efficient I was told.
The German operator Wustenfahrer has used Agence Mezrirene for many years.
I spoke to Ahmed during the trip (annoyed that earlier replies to Mez have dried up over the years) but he seems like good guy. We will see if subsequent replied get responses for an idea of mine.
Technically Tihodaine is in Tam wilaya, but it is so close maybe you can visit? It was never on our itinerary.
We were told we would do the Graveyard Piste - some came especially for it but at the last minute it was closed due to car thieves from Illizi hiding out there.
We would have gone Ain el Hadjhadj, west over the jebel, down and under the spur of Tifernine, out via Ta Haft canyon to come to Tamajert from the NW. That would have been a great route.
Graveyard piste all the way to HbG is I think closed anyway.

Thanks a lot!
RR.

If the area just south of Erg Admer is out of bounds, along with anywhere south of the new and old airport at Djanet right down to the Niger cutline, then how can the Algerian authorities be so confident about the Tadrart region given its proximity to trouble in both far flung southern Libya and northern Niger?

I've wondered that myself.
Afaict, Tadrart is a bit of a basin tucked behind the tassili and chiefly accessible down the winding In Djerane canyon then ringed with dunes along the Libyan border through which cars cannot pass easily (though Ahmed said there was a way).
There's also a checkpoint at the entrance, and another in the similar canyon 16km to the south - to discourage migrant traffickers I was told.
I guess they must feel they can control things down here.

In Djerane has many well-known rock art sites and Moul n Aga cirque at the back (below) is also famous (on the 1000-dinar note).
That may have something to do with maintaining access for tourists, despite the seeming exposure.

Just before the Tadrart turn-off I also saw a sign and a well-built piste leading south to In Ezzane.
The N3b from Djanet is sealed all the way to Tin Alkoum (closed).
No one really knew who runs the show in Ghat.

Some great photos from 2008.
 

Tourism, Tam' & Hoggar
 

Familiar, gloomy, reportage from Salima at El Watan (via Tamoudre) informs the aficionados little but may help to explain the realpolitik for any newbees.

Tamanrasset:Les agences de tourisme sont poussées à la fermeture - Tamoudre: Touaregs, vie et survie