Ahaggar

Ahaggar National Park was created in 1987 at the southern tip of Algeria, around the Hoggar massif, and at some 450,000 km² it is one of the most extensive protected areas on the planet and the largest in Africa, with an area comparable to that of Spain.

The Hoggar is a volcanic massif that rises above the Saharan plain and culminates in Mount Tahat, above 2,900 metres. Its most recognisable landscape is the Assekrem, a plateau ringed by needles and towers of phonolite rock, the remains of volcanic necks exhumed by erosion, where the hermit Charles de Foucauld set up his refuge at the beginning of the twentieth century. The altitude moderates temperatures and allows relicts of Mediterranean and Sahelian vegetation to survive in the damp ravines, with species such as Laperrine's olive and the Saharan cypress.

The massif preserves an extraordinary rock-art heritage: thousands of Neolithic engravings and paintings document a green Sahara, with giraffes, elephants, cattle and herding scenes, in a region that is hyper-arid today. It is the territory of the Kel Ahaggar Tuareg, and crocodiles survived into the twentieth century in its gueltas, or permanent rock pools. The present-day fauna includes Barbary sheep, dorcas gazelle and, very scarce, the Saharan cheetah.